Publications

Cao, L 2015, Metasynthetic Computing and Engineering of Complex Systems, Springer, London, UK.
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M-computing consists of the engineering methodologies and techniques [70–75] for reifying the theory of qualitative-to-quantitative metasynthesis, carrying out M-interaction, and constructing the M-space to tackle OCGS. From the computing ...

Chandran, D 2015, Innovations for Global Relationship Management (Custom book), McGraw Hill, Australia.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, Delay Tolerant Networks, Springer International Publishing.
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Gill, AQ 2015, Adaptive Cloud Enterprise Architecture, World Scientific.
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Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Written by an international group of experts, Ground Improvement Case Histories: Chemical, Electrokinetic, Thermal and Bioengineering Methods provides over 700 pages of case-histories collected from all over the world. Each case-history provides an overview of the specific technology followed by applications, and in some cases, comprehensive back analysis through numerical modelling is discussed. The book includes methods for employing bacterial and biological treatment, and native vegetation for stabilizing problematic soils. Specific case-histories included in the book are: Effect of Drainage and Grouting for the World Longest Seikan Undersea Tunnel Construction, Cement/lime Mixing Ground Improvement for Road Construction on Soft Ground, Use of Jet Grouting in Deep Excavations, and Stabilization of Reactive Sulphide Mine Tailings using Water Cover Technology. • Provides recent case histories using chemical and bio-engineering methods by world-renowned engineering experts • Includes over 200 illustrations and 150 equations from relevant topics, including state-of-the-art chemical and bioengineering methods • Presents comprehensive analysis methods using numerical modelling methods • Case histories include the "Effect of Drainage and Grouting on the Worlds Longest Seikan Undersea Tunnel Construction" and "Cement/Lime Mixing Ground Improvement for Road Construction on Soft Ground".

Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Written by a group of international contributors, Ground Improvement Case Histories: Embankments with Special Reference to Soil Consolidation and Other Physical Methods, employs the use of case-histories to illustrate and apply equations, numerical methods and technology to undertake even the most complicated ground improvement projects. In this book, each case-history provides an overview of the specific technology followed by field applications and in some cases comprehensive back-analysis through numerical modelling. Specific embankment case-histories with special reference to soil consolidation included are: Ballina Bypass (Australia), Tianjin Port (China), Second Bangkok International Airport (Thailand), Changi East reclamation (Singapore), Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway (Japan) and Colombo Airport Expressway, Sri Lanka. Other physical methods include performance of stone columns at Penny's Bay reclamation in Hong Kong and PCC piles for highway and high-speed railway construction in China, among others. • Provides a wealth of contributor-generated case histories from all over the world • Includes an abundance of illustrations and worked out examples • All inclusive discussion of preloading, vertical drains and vacuums applications • Features case-histories regarding sand and gravel piles, stone columns and other Rigid Inclusions.

Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Written by an international group of contributors, Ground Improvement Case Histories: Compaction, Grouting and Geosynthetics provides over 700 pages of international case-histories. Each case-history provides an overview of the specific technology followed by applications, with some cases offering a comprehensive back-analysis through numerical modelling. Specific case-histories include: The Use of Alternative and Improved Construction Materials and Geosynthetics in Pavements, Case Histories of Embankments on Soft Soils and Stabilisation with Geosynthetics, Ground Improvement with Geotextile Reinforcements, Use of Geosynthetics to aid Construction over Soft Soils and Soil Improvement and Foundation Systems with Encased Columns and Reinforced Bearing Layers.

Kroenke, D, Wilson, DN & Brookes, W 2015, Experiencing Management Information Systems, Fourth edition.

Lu, J & Hossain, J 2015, Vehicle-to-Grid: Linking electric vehicles to the smart grid, Institution of Engineering and Technology.
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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015. Plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles (PEVs) have the potential to provide substantial storage to a city’s grid, a key component in mitigating intermittency issues of power sources. But the batteries of these vehicles also need to be chchged at times when their users need them. Thus, V2G (vehicle-to-grid) is becoming an important issue in the future grid. An integrated treatment of this system, from power generation, monitoring, storage in stationchy and PEV batteries to control is a complex task. This book explores the connection between the stationchy grid and PEV power storage. Topics covered include: the impact of PEVs and V2G on smcht grid and renewable energy systems; distributed energy resource with PEV battery energy storage in the smcht grid; power conversion technology in smcht grid and PEVs; power control and monitoring of smcht grid with PEVs; PEV chchging technologies and V2G on distributed energy resources and utility interfaces; economic, social and environmental dimensions of PEVs in the smcht grid. This book will be of interest to resechchers and advanced students in electric vehicles and smcht grid technologies, and policy-makers and planners developing smcht grid infrastructure and sustainable transport initiatives.

Marshall, JP, Goodman, J, Zowghi, D & da Rimini, F 2015, Disorder and the Disinformation Society, Routledge, New York, USA.
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© 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. This book is the first general social analysis that seriously considers the daily experience of information disruption and software failure within contemporary Western society. Through an investigation of informationalism, defined as a contemporary form of capitalism, it describes the social processes producing informational disorder. While most social theory sees disorder as secondary, pathological or uninteresting, this book takes disordering processes as central to social life. The book engages with theories of information society which privilege information order, offering a strong counterpoint centred on 'disinformation.' Disorder and the Disinformation Society offers a practical agenda, arguing that difficulties in producing software are both inherent to the process of developing software and in the social dynamics of informationalism. It outlines the dynamics of software failure as they impinge on of information workers and on daily life, explores why computerized finance has become inherently self-disruptive, asks how digital enclosure and intellectual property create conflicts over cultural creativity and disrupt informational accuracy and scholarship, and reveals how social media can extend, but also distort, the development of social movements.

McCarthy, PX 2015, Online Gravity The Digital Giants Driving the Way You Live, Earn and Learn, Simon and Schuster.
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Online Gravity owes its existence to the following factors: • The fundamental nature of knowledge. Knowledge and the information it is based on empowers us and can be shared and used by many people without diminishing the ...

McCarthy, PX 2015, Online Gravity: The unseen force driving the way you live, earn and The Digital Giants Driving the Way You Live, Earn and Learn, Simon & Schuster Australia.
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In this must-have guide to negotiating your future in an increasingly digital world, Paul X. McCarthy shows us what Online Gravity is, how it works and how we can harness it for our own success.

Mueller, JE & Stewart, MG 2015, Chasing Ghosts The Policing of Terrorism, Oxford University Press.
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John Mueller and Mark Stewart expose here the ill-founded paranoia that has allowed the US national security state to both feed at the public trough and undermine America's civil liberties tradition.

Savkin, AV, Cheng, TM, Li, Z, Javed, F, Matveev, AS & Nguyen, H 2015, Decentralized Coverage Control Problems For Mobile Robotic Sensor and Actuator Networks, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, USA.
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DISTRIBUTED COVERAGE CONTROL OF MOBILE SENSOR AND ACTUATOR NETWORKS 3 both ecological and evolutionary theory. Animal aggregations, such as schools of coordination rules at the individual level, which at the same time ...

Tomamichel, M 2015, Quantum Information Processing with Finite Resources -- Mathematical Foundations, Springer, Cham, Switzerland.
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One of the predominant challenges when engineering future quantum informationprocessors is that large quantum systems are notoriously hard to maintain andcontrol accurately. It is therefore of immediate practical relevance toinvestigate quantum information processing with limited physical resources, forexample to ask: How well can we perform information processing tasks if we onlyhave access to a small quantum device? Can we beat fundamental limits imposedon information processing with classical resources? This book will introducethe reader to the mathematical framework required to answer such questions. Astrong emphasis is given to information measures that are essential for thestudy of devices of finite size, including R\'enyi entropies and smoothentropies. The presentation is self-contained and includes rigorous and conciseproofs of the most important properties of these measures. The first chapterswill introduce the formalism of quantum mechanics, with particular emphasis onnorms and metrics for quantum states. This is necessary to explore quantumgeneralizations of R\'enyi divergence and conditional entropy, informationmeasures that lie at the core of information theory. The smooth entropyframework is discussed next and provides a natural means to lift many argumentsfrom information theory to the quantum setting. Finally selected applicationsof the theory to statistics and cryptography are discussed.

Warkiani, ME, Wu, L, Tay, AKP & Han, J 2015, Large-Volume Microfluidic Cell Sorting for Biomedical Applications, Annual Reviews.
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Microfluidic cell-separation technologies have been studied for almost two decades, but the limited throughput has restricted their impact and range of application. Recent advances in microfluidics enable high-throughput cell sorting and separation, and this has led to various novel diagnostic and therapeutic applications that previously had been impossible to implement using microfluidics technologies. In this review, we focus on recent progress made in engineering large-volume microfluidic cell-sorting methods and the new applications enabled by them.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, Multi-Level Decision Making, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
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Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, Multi-Level Decision Making Models, Methods and Applications, Springer, Berlin, Germany.
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This book addresses an important decision making area—multi-level decisionmaking. To help readers understand the following chapters of this book, this chapter presents fundamental concepts, models, and techniques of decision making ...

Ball, D, Ross, P, English, A, Patten, T, Upcroft, B, Fitch, R, Sukkarieh, S, Wyeth, G & Corke, P 2015, 'Robotics for Sustainable Broad-Acre Agriculture', Springer, Germany, pp. 439-453.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. This paper describes the development of small low-cost cooperative robots for sustainable broad-acre agriculture to increase broad-acre crop production and reduce environmental impact. The current focus of the project is to use robotics to deal with resistant weeds, a critical problem for Australian farmers. To keep the overall system affordable our robot uses low-cost cameras and positioning sensors to perform a large scale coverage task while also avoiding obstacles. A multi-robot coordinator assigns parts of a given field to individual robots. The paper describes the modification of an electric vehicle for autonomy and experimental results from one real robot and twelve simulated robots working in coordination for approximately two hours on a 55 hectare field in Emerald Australia. Over this time the real robot ‘sprayed’ 6 hectares missing 2.6% and overlapping 9.7% within its assigned field partition, and successfully avoided three obstacles.

Basack, S, Indraratna, B, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Siahaan, F 2015, 'Theoretical and Numerical Perspectives on Performance of Stone-Column-Improved Soft Ground with Reference to Transport Infrastructure' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. 751-795.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. In this chapter, an axisymmetric solution is presented to study the performance of soft ground reinforced with stone columns with special emphasis on transport infrastructure. For typical surcharge (embankment) loading, significant column-to-soil stiffness ratio and the flexible nature of the embankment initiate the fill weight to "arch over" the stone columns, imposing uneven load distribution on the surface. In addition to the arching effect, the numerical model captured the influence of smear and clogging on the consolidation characteristics of soft clay. To simulate the field condition relevant to transport corridors, a free strain hypothesis was adopted. The entire numerical analysis was performed by means of finite difference technique with composite central and forward difference methods applied on axisymmetric soft soil elements under K0-condition. The model was validated by comparing with existing solutions and available field test results. Using the solutions developed, a design recommendation with relevant curves was proposed. The model and the design curves are successfully applied to selected case studies with several important conclusions.

Brady, F & Dyson, LE 2015, 'Why Mobile? Indigenous People and Mobile Technologies at the Edge' in Dyson, LE, Grant, S & Hendriks, M (eds), Indigenous People and Mobile Technologies, Routledge, USA, pp. 39-58.
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This chapter outlines a process of introducing mobile journalism skills (mojo) and technologies to Indigenous people living in remote communities in Australia. It explores the degree to which citizens can be taught how to create and publish empowering digital stories using just a smartphone. The digital era creates possibilities for new cross-cultural online communications where participants with similar social and cultural backgrounds create content and engage in activities concerning local issues and interests of importance to them. It also demonstrated that mojos could think outside the patterned story introduced. The irony was that because of the digital divide many families could only view stories on the mojos’ iPhones, at school, at the local media and community centers, or when the stories were broadcast on television. The degree to which objectivity impacts a subjective treatment will depend on the mojo, the story, a level of journalistic comprehension and in a commercial situation the brief and/or response from a commissioning body.

Braytee, A, Gill, AQ, Kennedy, PJ & Hussain, FK 2015, 'A Review and Comparison of Service E-Contract Architecture Metamodels' in Neural Information Processing, Springer International Publishing, pp. 583-595.
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Cai, Y, Yang, Y, Hauptmann, A & Wactlar, H 2015, 'Monitoring and Coaching the Use of Home Medical Devices' in Briassouli, A, Benois-Pineau, J & Hauptmann, A (eds), Health Monitoring and Personalized Feedback using Multimedia Data, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 265-283.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. Despite the popularity of home medical devices, serious safety concerns have been raised, because the use-errors of home medical devices have linked to a large number of fatal hazards. To resolve the problem, we introduce a cognitive assistive system to automatically monitor the use of home medical devices. Being able to accurately recognize user operations is one of the most important functionalities of the proposed system. However, even though various action recognition algorithms have been proposed in recent years, it is still unknown whether they are adequate for recognizing operations in using home medical devices. Since the lack of the corresponding database is the main reason causing the situation, at the first part of this paper, we present a database specially designed for studying the use of home medical devices. Then, we evaluate the performance of the existing approaches on the proposed database. Although using state-of-art approaches which have demonstrated near perfect performance in recognizing certain general human actions, we observe significant performance drop when applying it to recognize device operations. We conclude that the tiny actions involved in using devices is one of the most important reasons leading to the performance decrease. To accurately recognize tiny actions, it’s critical to focus on where the target action happens, namely the region of interest (ROI) and have more elaborate action modeling based on the ROI. Therefore, in the second part of this paper, we introduce a simple but effective approach to estimating ROI for recognizing tiny actions. The key idea of this method is to analyze the correlation between an action and the sub-regions of a frame. The estimated ROI is then used as a filter for building more accurate action representations. Experimental results show significant performance improvements over the baseline methods by using the estimated ROI for action recogn...

Das, A, Kunwar, R, Pal, U, Ferrer, MA & Blumenstein, M 2015, 'An Online Learning-Based Adaptive Biometric System' in Adaptive Biometric Systems, Springer International Publishing, pp. 73-96.
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Daver, F & Hadgraft, R 2015, 'Linking Materials Science and Engineering Curriculum to Design and Manufacturing Challenges of the Automotive Industry' in Handbook of Research on Recent Developments in Materials Science and Corrosion Engineering Education, IGI Global, pp. 46-66.
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Materials engineering applications are becoming more widespread, varied and sophisticated due to advances in science and increasing interdisciplinary cooperation. To be able to impart engineering graduates with the required technical background, educators need to update the course syllabus and the program curriculum continuously. Most importantly, in a world of constant change, educators need to develop the right graduate capabilities in engineering students. This calls for new, innovative teaching approaches to materials education. This chapter demonstrates the authors' teaching approach through the design and development of an Automotive Materials course at postgraduate level in an ‘International Automotive Engineering' program at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. To elucidate this teaching approach to materials education, the authors discuss in detail the need to impart an up-to-date understanding of new, alternative materials, the development of graduate capabilities, interdisciplinary systems thinking towards materials education, and the environmental sustainability of engineering materials.

Devece, C, Peris-Ortiz, M, Merigó, JM & Fuster, V 2015, 'Linking the Development of Teamwork and Communication Skills in Higher Education' in Sustainable Learning in Higher Education, Springer International Publishing, pp. 63-73.
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Dyson, LE 2015, 'Achieving sustainable mobile learning through student-owned devices and student-generated multimedia content' in Ng, W & Cumming, TM (eds), Sustaining Mobile Learning: Theory, Research and Practice, Taylor & Francis, USA, pp. 212-226.

Dyson, LE 2015, 'Framing the Indigenous Mobile Revolution' in Dyson, LE, Grant, S & Hendriks, M (eds), Indigenous People and Mobile Technologies, Routledge, USA, pp. 15-36.
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This chapter examines the role of mobile telephony in rural communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with particular emphasis on the attitudes expressed by rural villagers. It reports on a threshold study, with research conducted during the earliest stages of mobile phone adoption in ten such villages in Madang Province. Traditional communication methods vary across PNG. In Madang Province, a key method involves drumming on a large, wooden drum or slit gong known locally as a garamut. An important part of the communicative ecology in many places is now mass media, although for most people even this is not available since they live in rural poverty without electricity supply, movie theatres or transmitters. Developing nations have experienced significant growth in mobile telecommunication markets, particularly since 2000, but the Pacific has been one of the last regions of the world to experience widespread mobile phone access and uptake.

Fatahi, B, Khabbaz, H & Fatahi, B 2015, 'Improving Geotechnical Properties of Closed Landfills for Redevelopment Using Chemical Stabilization Techniques' in Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C (eds), Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, Oxford, pp. 239-266.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Construction on closed landfill sites is generally a challenging task due to the complex behavior of creep, settlement, high amount of moisture content, and weak shear strength of waste materials. This chapter presents the experimental results and numerical analyses for the use of fly ash and quicklime in improvement of the geotechnical properties of municipal solid wastes (MSW). The waste materials were collected from a closed landfill in the southwest of Sydney. The samples were prepared by integrating MSW with a mixture of fly ash-quicklime with a ratio of 3:1 in percentages of 5, 10, 15, and 20 of fly ash by dry weight of the MSW. A series of experimental tests and numerical analysis were conducted on treated and untreated MSW samples. It was found that the chemical stabilization effectively increased the compressive strength, the shear strength parameters, the stiffness, and the brittleness index, whereas it decreased the settlement and the permeability of the MSW layer. The finite element program, PLAXIS version 9, was used to evaluate the settlement of a landfill model. The laboratory results were used to validate the numerical model. The settlement of the landfill model 10 and 20 years after the surcharge load was applied for different fly ash-quicklime contents and various depths of improvement was estimated. Results indicated that treatment of MSW significantly reduced the vertical displacement of the landfill model under surcharge load. This reduction was greater with higher depths of improvement.

Fatahi, B, Pathirage, U, Indraratna, B, Pallewattha, M & Khabbaz, H 2015, 'The Role of Native Vegetation in Stabilizing Formation Soil for Transport Corridors' in Indraratna, B, Chu, J & RUJIKIATKAMJORN, C (eds), Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, Oxford, pp. 591-628.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This chapter describes a detailed field investigation conducted near an Australian native tree, Eucalyptus largiflorens. This investigation included field procedures such as drilling boreholes and taking soil samples, measuring the soil moisture content, soil suction, and also excavating trenches to observe the distribution of tree roots under the ground. It also includes the development a root water uptake model to examine and explain the soil properties, specifications for vegetation, and meteorological conditions; this root water uptake model incorporates key factors such as soil suction, active root density distribution, and potential transpiration. A two-dimensional finite element approach based on ABAQUS software was used to solve the transient coupled flow and deformation equations. The root water uptake model was implemented into the coupled analysis by introducing a sink term as a subroutine in the finite element analysis. The finite element mesh can be constructed using partially/fully saturated soil elements to represent the salient aspects of unsaturated permeability and the soil water characteristic curve. The model was formulated on the general effective stress theory of unsaturated soils, and based on this proposed model, the matric suction profile adjacent to the tree was analyzed numerically. To verify the model, the soil moisture content and suction profiles measured on site were compared to the predicted values, and profiles of ground settlement and lateral movement adjacent to the tree are presented and interpreted. By considering the various properties of the soil, types of vegetation, and atmospheric conditions, the proposed model would be of most use in predicting how this formation would react in a rail environment because the model developed in this study may improve the design and construction procedures for railway lines, foundations, and embankments near native vegetation. However, be...

Fernandez-Llatas, C, Pileggi, SF, Ibañez, G, Valero, Z & Sala, P 2015, 'Cloud Computing for Context-Aware Enhanced m-Health Services' in Methods in Molecular Biology, Springer New York, pp. 147-155.
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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015. m-Health services are increasing its presence in our lives due to the high penetration of new smartphone devices. This new scenario proposes new challenges in terms of information accessibility that require new paradigms which enable the new applications to access the data in a continuous and ubiquitous way, ensuring the privacy required depending on the kind of data accessed. This paper proposes an architecture based on cloud computing paradigms in order to empower new m-Health applications to enrich their results by providing secure access to user data.

Fong, S, Li, J, Gong, X & Vasilakos, AV 2015, 'Advances of Applying Metaheuristics to Data Mining Techniques' in Improving Knowledge Discovery through the Integration of Data Mining Techniques, IGI Global, pp. 75-103.
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Metaheuristics have lately gained popularity among researchers. Their underlying designs are inspired by biological entities and their behaviors, e.g. schools of fish, colonies of insects, and other land animals etc. They have been used successfully in optimization applications ranging from financial modeling, image processing, resource allocations, job scheduling to bioinformatics. In particular, metaheuristics have been proven in many combinatorial optimization problems. So that it is not necessary to attempt all possible candidate solutions to a problem via exhaustive enumeration and evaluation which is computationally intractable. The aim of this paper is to highlight some recent research related to metaheuristics and to discuss how they can enhance the efficacy of data mining algorithms. An upmost challenge in Data Mining is combinatorial optimization that, often lead to performance degradation and scalability issues. Two case studies are presented, where metaheuristics improve the accuracy of classification and clustering by avoiding local optima.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, 'Conclusions and Future Work' in Delay Tolerant Networks, Springer International Publishing, pp. 81-85.
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© The Author(s) 2015. This chapter reviews the whole monograph and summarizes its main contributions. Furthermore, potential research topics and their implementation are discussed for future work.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, 'Data Dissemination in Delay Tolerant Networks with Geographic Information' in Delay Tolerant Networks, Springer International Publishing, pp. 53-67.
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© The Author(s) 2015. “Unstable Network” is one of the most important features of delay tolerant networks (DTNs), where most of services or data dissemination are processed in a mobile environment. Geographic information, therefore, is an important factor needed to be carefully analyzed to overcome this “unstable” environment. In this chapter, how to use geographic information to improve data dissemination in DTNs is presented and two DTN applications based on geographic information are illustrated. The first one is vehicle based DTNs, where the vehicle is a carrier to disseminate data. The second one is human associated DTN, where the human is the carrier.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, 'Delay Tolerant Networks Based Applications' in Delay Tolerant Networks, Springer International Publishing, pp. 9-17.
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© The Author(s) 2015. This chapter surveys the typical applications of delay tolerant network techniques from four aspects: digital communication for rural areas, personal/wildlife communications, battlefield communications, disaster rescues and environmental monitoring communications.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, 'Preface', pp. V-VI.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, 'Privacy Protected Routing in Delay Tolerant Networks' in Delay Tolerant Networks, Springer International Publishing, pp. 69-79.
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© The Author(s) 2015. As illustrated in Chap. 3, the most recent research on human associated DTNs uses social information to improve performance, thus demonstrating social characteristics are important factors to improve performance. However, little has been done concerning the privacy issue in DTNs. With increasing use of social information, more and more social characteristics related data is disclosed without permission. Due to the privacy issue, most trace providers do not want to release data with meaningful social information, that may be used to identify the data entered especially for a large dataset. For example, AOL published a query logs but quickly removed it due to the re-identification issues addressed in [1]. Consequently, researchers are trying to find ways to anonymize personal information while maintaining network functioning.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, 'Routing Protocols in Delay Tolerant Networks' in Delay Tolerant Networks, Springer International Publishing, pp. 19-34.
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© The Author(s) 2015. In this chapter, typical routing protocols in delay tolerant networks are presented. These routing protocols are categorized into epidemic based routing protocols, probability based routing protocols, geographic based routing protocols, social concept based routing protocols and time related routing protocols.

Gao, L, Yu, S, Luan, TH & Zhou, W 2015, 'Social Characteristics Based Multiple Dimensional Routing Protocol in Human Associated Delay Tolerant Networks' in Delay Tolerant Networks, Springer International Publishing, pp. 35-51.
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© The Author(s) 2015. This chapter introduces how to use multiple dimensional social attributes to improve data forwarding performance in human associated delay tolerant networks. As mobile nodes in these human associated DTNs are carried by humans, data forwarding processes are determined by human social behaviors [1]. If a node has two or more social attributes, it can be treated as a social hub (popular nodes with many social attributes), where characteristics with other nodes are shared in the overlapping area of the attributes.

García, JÁ, de la Cruz del Río Rama, M, González-Vázquez, E & Lindahl, JMM 2015, 'Motivations for Implementing a System of Quality Management in Spanish Thalassotherapy Centers' in Health and Wellness Tourism, Springer International Publishing, pp. 101-115.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. This article presents results from an empirical study of 31 thalassotherapy centers out of the total national number of 44 (as of 2011). The objective was to identify motivations that drive these centers to implement and certify a Quality Management System (QMS). Following a comprehensive theoretical review, the empirical research method consisted of descriptive and factor analyses to determine the importance and structure of motivations. Results show that the key motivations driving thalassotherapy centers to implement a QMS are enhancing service quality, improving processes and procedures, and creating awareness of quality in centers.

Grochow, JA & Qiao, Y 2015, 'Polynomial-Time Isomorphism Test of Groups that are Tame Extensions' in Algorithms and Computation, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 578-589.
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Gunawardane, K 2015, 'Capacitors as energy storage devices—simple basics to current commercial families' in Energy Storage Devices for Electronic Systems, Elsevier, pp. 137-148.
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Gunawardane, K 2015, 'Supercapacitor as a lossless dropper in DC-DC converters' in Energy Storage Devices for Electronic Systems, Elsevier, pp. 187-225.
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Guo, YJ & Qin, P-Y 2015, 'Reconfigurable Antennas for Wireless Communications' in Handbook of Antenna Technologies, Springer Singapore, pp. 1-38.
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The Handbook of Antenna Technologies aims to present the rapid development of antenna technologies, particularly in the past two decades, and also showcasing the newly developed technologies and the latest applications.

Heitor, A, Indraratna, B, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Golaszewski, R 2015, 'Assessment of the Postcompaction Fill Characteristics at the Penrith Lakes Development Site' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. 399-428.
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Hong, S & Shon, HK 2015, 'Membrane Fouling in Forward Osmosis Processes' in Forward Osmosis, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 217-240.
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© 2015 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. All Rights Reserved. Several filtration systems have been applied to advanced water treatment and even conventional water treatment processes. Although the membrane filtration systems are the most feasible alternative for water treatment, several problems still remain for efficient operation of membrane filtration. Among these problems, fouling is one of the major challenges to overcome in membrane technology. Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane is a polyamide thin-film composite membrane and forward osmosis (FO) membrane is a cellulose-based membrane, thus fouling could differ between RO and FO due to different membrane surface characteristics, which are discussed in this chapter. The chapter also discusses various strategies that mitigate fouling formation in the FO process in terms of spacers, cross-flow velocity, air scouring, cross-flow type, and osmotic backwashing. The osmotic backwashing is applied to an osmotic membrane bioreactor system that utilizes a submerged FO membrane in the bioreactor.

Huang, Z & Du, G 2015, 'Nickel-based batteries for medium- and large-scale energy storage' in Advances in Batteries for Medium and Large-Scale Energy Storage, Elsevier, pp. 73-90.
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This book chapter covers nickel-based batteries, with the focus on Ni-Cd and Ni-MH due to their commercial success, from fundamental electrochemistry to technical development in terms of electrode materials and assembly, and to applications since their introduction into the energy storage market. Due to both environmental concerns and direct competition from rapidly developed Li-ion batteries, the market share of Ni-Cd batteries has shrunk dramatically. The future of Ni-MH batteries is contingent on improvement of their performance and reduction in cost, in comparison with the parallel development of the Li-ion batteries.

Indraratna, B 2015, 'Recent Advances in Soft Soil Consolidation' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. 3-32.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Many metropolitan cities are situated along coastal belts, which are composed of very soft alluvial and marine clays. Because of low shear strength and high compressibility, the soft soils in these areas are not suitable for construction without appropriate ground improvement. To ensure stability during construction and reduce long-term settlements, it is necessary to implement a preconstruction technique in the soft soil site on which infrastructures are to be built. A common technique is to use prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs), which, combined with surcharge loading and vacuum, occurs before the construction of many essential coastal line infrastructures such as airports, railway tracks, and commercial buildings worldwide. This technique has been proved to be an effective way to expedite soft soil consolidation. Firstly, the radial drainage paths allowed by PVDs accelerate the dissipation of excess pore pressure under the surcharge loading. Secondly, negative pore pressure created by the vacuum accelerates the consolidation process as well as controlling lateral displacement. This chapter introduces the basic principles of PVDs combined with surcharge loading and vacuum, along with the illustration of two types of PVD systems: the membrane system and the membraneless system. The numerical conversion method from 3D to 2D and a constitutive model for soft soils under cyclic loading is presented, along with case histories of the Port of Brisbane, the Pacific Highway in Ballina, the Sandgate Rail Grade Separation Project in Australia, and the Tianjin Port in China. PVDs with vacuum-assisted preloading was utilized in each of these projects and has made significant contributions to preconstruction consolidation. Design charts are introduced for design of PVDs combined with surcharge loading and vacuum in industry.

Indraratna, B & Nimbalkar, S 2015, 'An Australian Perspective on Modernization of Rail Tracks Using Geosynthetics and Shockmats' in Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C (eds), Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, Oxford, pp. 583-608.
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Faster and cheaper rail transport(s) is an essential means of catering for the demand for travel and supply chains in the public and private sectors. Such a development in coastal areas would necessitate the use of ground improvement techniques to improve track performance and sustainability. While ballast stabilizes tracks so they can support heavy traffic loads and provide rapid drainage, ballast settlement, fouling, and excessive lateral displacement leads to differential settlement, loss of track geometry, and requires costly and regular maintenance. Optimizing the use of maintenance funds is a challenging task because comprehensive methods of predicting track longevity due to time-dependent and rapid deterioration of ballast simply do not exist. Track construction therefore requires appropriate ballast stabilization techniques using geosynthetics and shock mats, the effectiveness of which depends also on the type of subgrade. Comprehensive field trials were carried out on two rail lines at Bulli and Singleton, New South Wales, Australia. In these studies, several track sections were reinforced with various types of geosynthetics: three types of biaxial geogrids and a geocomposite (a combination of biaxial geogrid and nonwoven geotextile) and a layer of shock mat placed beneath the ballast embankment. Both fresh and recycled ballast were examined for varying subgrade conditions, and recoverable and irrecoverable deformations of the track substructure were routinely monitored. It was found that geogrids and geocomposites can decrease the vertical strains of the ballast layer, and thus reduce maintenance costs. It was also found that geogrids were more effective when the subgrade was soft, and shock mats also helped mitigate particle breakage when laid on a stiff base such as the deck of a concrete bridge. This chapter describes the comprehensive field instrumentation, construction procedures, and evaluation of these full-scale ballasted tracks stabilized wit...

Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Preface' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. xvii-xviii.
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Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Preface', pp. xvii-xviii.

Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Preface' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. xvii-xviii.
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Indraratna, B, Chu, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Preface' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. xvii-xviii.
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Indraratna, B, Rujikiatkamjorn, C, Balasubramaniam, AS & Wijeyakulasuriya, V 2015, 'Predictions and Observations of Soft Clay Foundations Stabilized with Geosynthetic Drains and Vacuum Surcharge' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. 209-240.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This chapter starts with an introduction of a revised analytical model of radial drainage with vacuum preloading in both axisymmetric and plane strain conditions. Observed from large-scale radial drainage consolidation tests, the influence of vacuum pressure distribution along the drain length is examined through the dissipation of average excess pore pressure and associated settlement. The details of an appropriate conversion procedure by transforming permeability and vacuum pressure between axisymmetric and equivalent plane strain conditions are described through analytical and numerical schemes. The effects of the magnitude and distribution of vacuum pressure on soft clay consolidation are investigated on the basis of average excess pore pressure, consolidation settlement, and time analyses. The authors describe a multidrain plane strain finite element method analysis based on permeability conversion, which is used to study the behavior of embankments stabilized at the site of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport with vacuum-assisted prefabricated vertical drains. In the field, a constant suction head is not always stable because of the occurrence of air leaks; therefore the magnitude of applied vacuum pressure was adjusted accordingly. The theoretical (numerical) predictions are compared with measured field data such as settlements, excess pore pressures, and lateral movements. The case history analysis using the authors' model indicates improved accuracy of the predictions in relation to the field observations. The data indicate that the efficiency of the prefabricated vertical drains depends on the magnitude and distribution of vacuum pressure as well as on the extent of air leak protection provided in practice.

Indraratna, B, Sathananthan, I, Bamunawita, C & Balasubramaniam, AS 2015, 'Theoretical and Numerical Perspectives and Field Observations for the Design and Performance Evaluation of Embankments Constructed on Soft Marine Clay' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. 83-122.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. In this chapter, a two-dimensional plane strain solution is adopted for the embankment analysis, which includes the effects of a smear zone caused by mandrel driven vertical drains. The equivalent (transformed) permeability coefficients are incorporated in finite element codes, employing modified Cam-clay theory. Selected numerical studies have been carried out to study the effect of embankment slope, construction rate, and drain spacing on the failure of the soft clay foundation. Finally, the observed and predicted performances of well-instrumented full-scale trial embankments built on soft Malaysian marine clay have been discussed in detail. The predicted results agree with the field measurements.

Kale, A & Chaczko, Z 2015, 'Evolutionary Feature Optimization and Classification for Monitoring Floating Objects' in Borowik, G, Chaczko, Z, Jacak, W & Luba, T (eds), Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 3-16.
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Water surfaces are polluted due to various man-made and natural pollutants. In urban areas, natural water sources including rivers, lakes and creeks are the biggest collectors of such contaminants. Monitoring of water sources can help to investigate many of details relating to the types of litter and their origin. Usually two principle methods are applied for this type of applications, which include either a use of in-situ sensors or monitoring by computer vision methods. Sensory approach can detect detailed properties of a water including salinity and chemical composition. Whereas, a camera based detection helps to monitor visible substances like floating or immersed objects in a transparent water. Current computer vision systems require an application specific computational models to address a variability introduced due to the environmental fluctuations. Hence, a computer vision algorithm is proposed to detect and classify floating objects in various environmental irregularities. This method uses an evolutionary algorithmic principles to learn inconsistencies in the patterns by using a historical data of river pollution. A proof of the concept is built and validated using a real life data of pollutants. The experimental results clearly indicate the advantages of proposed scheme over the other benchmark methods used for addressing the similar problem.

Karunanithi, R, Szogi, AA, Bolan, N, Naidu, R, Loganathan, P, Hunt, PG, Vanotti, MB, Saint, CP, Ok, YS & Krishnamoorthy, S 2015, 'Chapter Three Phosphorus Recovery and Reuse from Waste Streams', pp. 173-250.
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Lance, BJ, Touryan, J, Wang, Y-K, Lu, S-W, Chuang, C-H, Khooshabeh, P, Sajda, P, Marathe, A, Jung, T-P, Lin, C-T & McDowell, K 2015, 'Towards Serious Games for Improved BCI' in Nakatsu, R, Rauterberg, M & Ciancarini, P (eds), Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies, Springer Singapore, Germany, pp. 1-28.
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Brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, or technologies that use online brain signal processing, have a great promise to improve human interactions with computers, their environment, and even other humans. Despite this promise, there are no current serious BCI technologies in widespread use, due to the lack of robustness in BCI technologies. The key neural aspect of this lack of robustness is human variability, which has two main components: (1) individual differences in neural signals and (2) intraindividual variability over time. In order to develop widespread BCI technologies, it will be necessary to address this lack of robustness. However, it is currently unknown how neural variability affects BCI performance. To accomplish these goals, it is essential to obtain data from large numbers of individuals using BCI technologies over considerable lengths of time. One promising method for this is through the use of BCI technologies embedded into games with a purpose (GWAP). GWAP are a game-based form of crowdsourcing which players choose to play for enjoyment and during which the player performs key tasks which cannot be automated but that are required to solve research questions. By embedding BCI paradigms in GWAP and recording neural and behavioral data, it should be possible to much more clearly understand the differences in neural signals between individuals and across different time scales, enabling the development of novel and increasingly robust adaptive BCI algorithms.

Legrand, T, Bronitt, S & Stewart, M 2015, 'Evidence of the impact of counter-terrorism legislation' in Routledge Handbook of Law and Terrorism, pp. 297-312.

Leijdekkers, P & Gay, V 2015, 'Improving User Engagement by Aggregating and Analysing Health and Fitness Data on a Mobile App' in Inclusive Smart Cities and e-Health, Springer International Publishing, pp. 325-330.
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Li, M, Li, J, Ou, Y & Cao, L 2015, 'A Coupled Similarity Kernel for Pairwise Support Vector Machine' in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer International Publishing, pp. 114-123.
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Li, M, Li, J, Ou, Y & Luo, D 2015, 'A coupled similarity kernel for pairwise support vector machine' in Agents and Data Mining Interaction (LNCS), Springer, Germany, pp. 114-123.
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Support vector machine is a supervised learning model with associated learning algorithms that analyzes data and recognizes patterns. In various applications, the SVM shows its advantage of the classification performance, however, the original SVM was designed for the numerical data. For using the SVM on the nominal data, most previous research used a certain number to replace each nominal value or transformed the nominal value into the one hot vector. Both methods could not present the original nominal data's structure and the similarity between them, which leads to information loss from the data and reduce the classification performance. In this work, we design a novel coupled similarity metric between nominally attributed data. This metric is pairwise, we also propose an adapted SVMwhich can handle this. The experiment result shows the proposed method outperforms the traditional SVM and other popular classification methods on various public data sets.

Li, X-M, Chen, G, Shon, HK & He, T 2015, 'Treatment of High-Salinity Wastewater from Shale Gas Exploitation by Forward Osmosis Processes' in Forward Osmosis, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 339-361.
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© 2015 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. All Rights Reserved. This chapter reviews state-of-the-art treatment of shale-gas-produced water with a focus on the treatment of shale-gas flow-back water (SGW) by forward osmosis (FO). It briefly introduces the origin and chemical/physical characteristics of SGW. Management of shale-gas wastewater depends on multidimensional criteria, e.g., local regulations, site conditions, water quality, and economic feasibility. Approaches used to treat high-salinity wastewater include deep well injection, transport and centralized treatment, treatment and disposal, and reuse. The chapter analyzes the advantages and limitations of potential treatments methods and summarizes the process parameters and selection of membrane and draw solutions. Studies were performed to examine the effectiveness of FO in treating high-salinity wastewater produced from shale-gas exploitation. The chapter discusses the potential for using the FO process to treat SGW on a large scale.

Lu, J & Hossain, J 2015, 'Introduction to the Smart Grid using PEVs' in Vehicle-to-Grid: Linking electric vehicles to the smart grid, Institution of Engineering and Technology, pp. 1-10.
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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015. The smart grid, regarded as the next generation of power grid, uses two-way flows of electricity and information to create a widely distributed automated resilient energy delivery network. The smart grid will meet environmental targets to accommodate a greater emphasis on demand response, and to support plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) as well as distributed generation and storage capabilities. The PEVs including all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) will play a significant role in the electric power system. The connection of PEVs can have serious impact on the future smart grid. Although PEVs can provide a new opportunity to reduce oil consumption by drawing on power from the electric power grid, they can be used as energy storage to provide the energy into power grid. The power flow between PEVs and the grid can be bidirectional if PEVs have the function of vehicle-to-grid (V2G), which can be either as flexible loads (charging mode) or storage sources (discharging mode). To maximize the benefits of V2G, the emerging PEV infrastructure must provide access to electricity from the smart grid, satisfy driver expectations, and ensure safety. This chapter introduces a basic concept of the smart grid and its "building blocks,"microgrids, and impact of PEVs on distributed energy resources in the smart grid and V2G technology and PEVs charging infrastructures.

Lu, Z, Li, JJ & Zreiqat, H 2015, 'Bone-Biomimetic Biomaterial and Cell Fate Determination' in Mechanical Engineering Series, Springer International Publishing, pp. 119-146.
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Marjanovic, O & Hallikainen, P 2015, 'Knowledge-Intensive Business Processes in Disaster Recovery' in Mola, L, Pennarola, F & Za, S (eds), From Information to Smart Society, Springer International Publishing, pp. 113-122.
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Marjanovic, O, Hallikainen, P, Balnave, N, Patmore, G & Rittau, Y 2015, 'Social Media Use in Australian Co-operatives: Current applications and future opportunities' in Cooperative Enterprises in Australia and Italy: Comparative analysis and theoretical insights' in Jensen, A, Patmore, G & Tortia, E (eds), Cooperative Enterprises in Australia and Italy: Comparative analysis and theoretical insights, Firenze University Press, pp. 231-244.

Mattiasson, B & Ye, L 2015, 'Preface.', pp. v-vi.
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Mueller, J & Stewart, MG 2015, 'TERRORISM, PERSONAL SECURITY, AND RESPONSIBLE POLICY MAKING' in Handbook of Personal Security, pp. 323-338.
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As declared in the first sentence of the American Constitution and throughout the work of Thomas Hobbes, a key reason for founding governments is to “ensure domestic Tranquility.” Accordingly, officials serving the public are tasked at the most fundamental level to provide personal securityto expend funds in a manner that most effectively and efficiently keeps people safe.

Oboler, S & González, DJ 2015, 'The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in Contemporary Politics, Law, and Social Movements' in Oboler, S & Gonzalez, D (eds), Latinos and Latinas in Contemporary Politics, Law and Social Movements, Oxford University Press, pp. 227-229.
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Pallewattha, M, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Improvement of soil stability along rail corridors through native vegetation' in Chen, Z, Wei, C, Sun, D & Xu, Y (eds), Unsaturated Soil Mechanics - from Theory to Practice, CRC Press, pp. 835-838.
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Pathirage, U, Banasiak, L, Indraratna, B & Lugg, G 2015, 'Numerical Modeling of Clogging in a Permeable Reactive Barrier and Rejuvenation by Alkaline Fluid Injection in the Shoalhaven Floodplain, Australia' in Ground Improvement Case Histories, Elsevier, pp. 205-238.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. A permeable reactive barrier (PRB) was utilized to remediate the acidic water generated from acid sulfate soil (ASS) in the Shoalhaven Floodplain approximately 100. km south of Sydney, Australia, where acidic groundwater is a severe environmental, social, and economic problem. After testing more than 20 alkaline materials, recycled concrete aggregates were chosen as a capable alkalinity source and utilized in this PRB. The current study aims to simulate the performance of the PRB by coupling geochemistry with geohydraulics. Secondary minerals precipitate during the remediation process, causing chemical clogging, which reduces the porosity and hydraulic conductivity of the reactive material. Laboratory column experiments were carried out to understand the remediation process taking place between acidic groundwater and recycled concrete particles. Commercially available finite different codes, MODFLOW and RT3D, were used to simulate the time-dependent modeling of the PRB. An original geochemical algorithm was developed capturing all the chemical reactions and fed into RT3D. The column experiments and field results are in good agreement with the model calculations, which proved that the reduction in hydraulic conductivity due to mineral precipitation occurs mostly at the entrance zone of the PRB and was insignificant in the middle and exit zones after 6 years of operation.A long-term column test was conducted to assess the reconditioning of armored recycled concrete with alkaline wastewater, with the aim to restore and enhance the acid neutralization capacity (ANC) and longevity of the PRB. Benefits of the alkaline wastewater injection included sharp but short enhancement of the concretes' ANC, as indicated by an increase in effluent pH (pH3-7.7) and alkalinity (0-21.6mM CaCO3), and a reduction in oxidation reduction potential (530-160mV). Although results showed that the alkaline wastewater did not significantly reduce chem...

Phuntsho, S, Kim, JE, Majeed, T, Lotfi, F, Sahebi, S, Park, MJ & Shon, HK 2015, 'Fertiliser-Drawn Forward Osmosis Desalination for Fertigation' in Shon, HK, Phuntsho, S, Zhang, TC & Surampalli, RY (eds), Forward Osmosis, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia, USA, pp. 395-426.
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© 2015 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. All Rights Reserved. This chapter explains the concept of the fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) desalination process and evaluates the potential of fertilizer solutions as draw solutions (DS). Different types of fertilizers are used to grow crops, and hence understanding what types of fertilizers are more suitable for the FDFO desalination process and how to screen and assess suitable fertilizer candidates for use as DS in the FDFO desalination process is important. FDFO desalination adds value to irrigation water and provides more opportunities for improving the efficiencies of water and fertilizer use. The major limitations of the FDFO desalination process are the challenge of meeting the irrigation water quality standards in terms of nutrient concentrations, which limits the direct use of FDFO product water for fertigation. Several options are discussed that could be integrated with the FDFO desalination process to reduce the final nutrient concentration closer to an acceptable limit.

Phuntsho, S, Shon, HK, Zhang, T & Surampalli, R 2015, 'Introduction: Role of Membrane Science and Technology and Forward Osmosis Processes' in Forward Osmosis, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 1-14.
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Pileggi, SF & Amor, R 2015, 'Semantic Geographic Space: From Big Data to Ecosystems of Data' in Studies in Big Data, Springer International Publishing, pp. 351-374.
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Pradhan, S 2015, 'Use of Design Thinking: A step towards fostering creativity and innovation in a teaching environment' in Remenyi, D (ed), The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Teaching Excellence Awards 2015, Academic Conference and Publishing International Ltd, London, pp. 149-162.
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Students are the future leaders and workforce of successful business organisations. Emulating real work experience at an undergraduate level class environment helps students prepare and understand well in Management and Information Systems (IS) subjects. Adopting design thinking methods in a classroom setting gives students an opportunity to design and emulate a work system resulting in better outcomes for them. As students work on the project created by themselves, it acts as a catalyst for their continuous development to achieve exemplary goals. With proper guidance, a learning platform and facilitation, students use their meta-cognitive skills to accomplish optimum results. We have used an ideation tool to facilitate and foster their potential in designing the learning and collaborative system. Additionally, giving exposure to and fostering a ‘start-up culture’ and establishing equivalent ‘innovation day’ strategies adopted by big organisations also pushes students learning boundaries, thus motivating them to attain monumental milestone. This case study discusses the methodology adopted, tool used and environment fostered in the class. It also evaluates the results from the adoption of this learning platform during previous semesters. Students with entrepreneurship aptitude and vision have appreciated these new learning methods as a positive re-enforcement of learning.

Pradhan, S & Bajracharya, G 2015, 'Socio-Economic Impacts on the Adoption of Mobile Phones by the Major Indigenous Nationalities of Nepal' in Dyson, L, Grant, S & Hendriks, M (eds), Indigenous People and Mobile Technologies, Routledge, Oxford, UK, pp. 237-250.
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Rahman, MS, Rafi, FH, Hossain, MJ & Lu, J 2015, 'Power Control and Monitoring of the Smart Grid with Evs' in Vehicle-to-Grid: Linking electric vehicles to the smart grid, Institution of Engineering and Technology, pp. 107-156.
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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015. The usage of electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) has increased significantly in recent years due to environmental concerns and hike in the fossil fuel price. These vehicles possess dual dynamic characteristics. They act as a load while in G2V (grid-to-vehicle) mode and as a generator while in V2G (vehicle-to-grid) mode. V2G concept can improve utility grid performance with regard to efficiency, stability and reliability by offering reactive power management and active power control, tracking intermittent renewable energy sources, load balancing and shifting via valley filling support, peak load shaving and current harmonics filtering in the output. On the other hand, G2V includes conventional and fast battery charging that can stress the grid distribution network due to high-power rating of EV batteries and by injecting harmonics. Sophisticated active and reactive power regulation as well as state-of-the-art monitoring system is required to overcome the impacts and to implement successful interfacing. This chapter discusses the impacts of G2V/V2G concepts on the smart grid active and reactive power profile and their optimum control strategies. The importance of and the technologies needed for smart monitoring system in charging/discharging mode are also reviewed. Simulation results show that controlled implementation of V2G can significantly contribute to enhancing dynamic performance and stability of the microgrid under different operating conditions.

Rooney, DL, Willey, K, Gardner, AP, Boud, DJ, Reich, AJ & Fitzgerald, T 2015, 'Engineers' professional learning: through the lens of practice' in Williams, B, Figeiredo, J & Trevelyan, J (eds), Engineering practice in a global context: understanding the technical and the social, CRC Press, Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 265-280.

Rosing, MV, Scheel, JV & Gill, AQ 2015, 'Applying Agile Principles to BPM.' in Rosing, MV, Scheel, HV & Scheer, A-W (eds), The Complete Business Process Handbook, Vol. I, Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier, USA, pp. 553-577.
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Agile provides alternative ways of working. Organizations are showing significant interest in applying agile ways of working to business process management (BPM). BPM is concerned with the automation and management of business processes. Agile ways of working can be applied to BPM planning, analysis, architecture, design, implementation, operation, monitoring, and improvement. However, the application of agile thinking to BPM is not a straight forward task. There is a need to understand the basic concepts, underlying values and principles of agile ways of working. This chapter discusses the constituent building blocks of agile and explains how to establish an Agile BPM capability.

Rosing, MV, Scheer, A-W, Scheel, HV, Svendsen, ADM, Kokkonen, A, Ross, AM, Bøgebjerg, AF, Olsen, A, Dicks, A, Gill, AQ, Bach, B, Storms, BJ, Smit, C, Clemmensen, C, Swierczynski, CK, Utschig-Utschig, C, Moorcroft, D, Jones, DT, Coloma, D, Boykin, D, Muhita, DH, Gonçalves, D, Maggi, FM, Zhao, F, Senghore, F, Dandashi, F, Cummins, F, Stoffel, F, Scheel, GV, Rosing, GV, Doucet, G, Meiling, G, Jansson, GO, Scheruhn, H, Bohn, H, Man, HD, Kuil, H, Vester, HN, Gammelgaard, J, Womack, JP, Ross, JW, Greer, J, Nielsen, JT, Zachman, JA, Bertram, J, Golden, J, Rogers, JM, Erasmus, J, Scheel, JV & Waters, J 2015, 'Business Process Trends.' in Rosing, MV, Scheel, HV & Scheer, A-W (eds), The Complete Business Process Handbook, Vol. I, Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier, USA, pp. 187-216.
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Shon, HK, Chekli, L, Phuntsho, S, Kim, J & Cho, J 2015, 'Draw Solutes in Forward Osmosis Processes' in Shon, HK, Phuntsho & Zhang, T (eds), Forward Osmosis, American Society of Civil Engineers, USA, pp. 85-113.
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© 2015 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. All Rights Reserved. This chapter provides insight into the selection of suitable draw solutions (DS) and reviews different DS characteristics affecting the performance of forward osmosis (FO) processes. Although some commercial applications of FO technology exist, the development of an effective large-scale process is currently limited due to the lack of both suitable DS and membrane. The success of most FO applications also relies on how the DS can be recovered from the produced water. Therefore, in commercial FO processes, such as FO followed by reverse osmosis seawater desalination, emergency drinks and osmotic dilution are used without a DS recovery system-a simple and energy-saving solution. Research is still needed to develop more suitable DS to achieve full-scale commercialization of the FO process.

Shon, HK, Phuntsho, S, Zhang, TC & Surampalli, RY 2015, 'Preface' in Forward Osmosis: Fundamentals and Applications, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. ix-x.
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© 2015 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. All Rights Reserved. This introduction presents an overview of the book’s key concepts. The book’s main objective is to introduce the principles and concept of the forward osmosis (FO) process and the potential for various applications, such as desalination, fertigation, wastewater reuse, and mine water treatment. The book also covers other important aspects of the FO process such as membrane fabrication and modeling. The introduction briefly outlines each chapter, including various water treatment technologies available on the market. One of the most advanced and reliable water treatment technologies is the membrane process. Depending on the membrane pore size and its removal capacity, the membrane process is classified into four different types: microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration. and reverse osmosis.

Siwakoti, YP, Blaabjerg, F & Loh, PC 2015, 'Z-source converters' in Power Electronic Converters and Systems: Frontiers and Applications, Institution of Engineering and Technology, pp. 205-243.
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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2016. Impedance-sourced networks provide an efficient means of power conversion between source and load in a wide range of electric power conversion applications (dc-dc, dc-ac, ac-dc, and ac-ac). Various topologies and control methods using different impedance source networks have been presented in the literature, e.g. for adjustable-speed drives, uninterruptible power supply, distributed generation (fuel cell, photovoltaic (PV), wind, etc.), battery or super-capacitor energy storage, electric vehicles, distributed dc power systems, avionics, flywheel energy storage systems, electronic loads, dc circuit breaker, and many more [1-13]. A variety of converter topologies with buck, boost, buck-boost, unidirectional, bidirectional, isolated as well as non-isolated converters are possible by proper implementation of the impedance source network with various switching devices, topologies, and configurations. Figure 7.1 shows the general configuration of an impedance source network for electric power conversion.

Ting, SRS, Min, EH, Cortie, MB, Nguyen, HT & Hutvagner, G 2015, 'Frontiers in Nanomedicine' in Bondì, M, Botto, C & Amore, E (eds), Frontiers in Nanomedicine, BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS, UAE, pp. 222-255.
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The development of therapeutic nucleic acids has led to new strategies for treating various diseases. Non-viral, synthetic nano-vectors in gene therapy have attracted increasing attention due to their low immunogenicity and low toxicity compared to viral counterparts. Due to the molecular structure of nucleic acids, they are very prone to degradation in pH sensitive biological environments. Therefore, synthetic nano-vehicles for therapeutic delivery, known as ‘nano-vectors’, need to be cleverly designed and engineered to protect and deliver appropriate therapeutic nucleic acids to the targeted sites for action. In this chapter, a brief overview of various types of therapeutic nucleic acids is first provided, followed by analysis of the synthetic nanomaterials under development as delivery systems to carry nucleic acids. The nucleic acid-encapsulated nano-vectors discussed here open a window for a new generation of nanomedicine.

van Schaik, A & Hamilton, T 2015, 'Silicon Cochlea Building Blocks' in Event-Based Neuromorphic Systems, Wiley, pp. 219-235.
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© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This chapter goes into the details of some of the circuit blocks used in the silicon cochleas discussed in Chapter 4. It looks at some of the basic circuit structures used in the design of various one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) silicon cochleas. Nearly all silicon cochleas are built around second-order low-pass or band-pass filters. These filters are usually described as second-order sections.

van Schaik, A, Hamilton, T & Liu, SC 2015, 'Silicon Cochleas' in Event-Based Neuromorphic Systems, Wiley, pp. 71-90.
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© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. While the previous chapter was about neuromorphic silicon retinas, this one is on silicon cochleas. The cochlea is biology's sound sensor - it turns vibrations in the air into a neural signal. This chapter briefly explains the operation of the various components of the biological cochlea and introduces circuits that can simulate these components. Silicon cochlea designs typically divide the biological cochlea into several sections that are equally spaced along its length. Each section is then modeled by an electronic circuit. Silicon cochlea designs may be classified as 1D or 2D, depending on the coupling between these sections. Circuits for both variants are presented. They may also be classified as active or passive, depending on whether the quality factor of each cochlear section changes as a function of the output signal of the section or not. Details for both implementations are presented. A tree diagram at the end of the chapter illustrates the progression of silicon cochlea modeling.

Wang, M, Khalilpour, R & Abbas, A 2015, 'Effect of feed natural gas conditions on the performance of mixed refrigerant LNG process' in Gernaey, KV, Huusom, JK & Gani, R (eds), 12th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering and 25th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering, Elsevier, pp. 2309-2314.
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Ye, F & Yu, H 2015, 'Research on Automate Discovery of Deep Web Interfaces' in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer International Publishing, pp. 191-198.
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Yoo, C, Fitch, R & Sukkarieh, S 2015, 'Online Task Planning and Control for Aerial Robots with Fuel Constraints in Winds' in Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics XI, Springer, 42, pp. 711-727.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. Real-world applications of aerial robots must consider operational constraints such as fuel level during task planning. This paper presents an algorithm for automatically synthesizing a continuous non-linear flight controller given a complex temporal logic task specification that can include contingency planning rules. Our method is a hybrid controller where fuel level is treated continuously in the low-level and symbolically in the high-level. The low-level controller assumes the availability of a set of point-estimates of wind velocity and builds a continuous interpolation using Gaussian process regression. Fuel burn and aircraft dynamics are modelled under physically realistic assumptions.Our algorithm is efficient and we showempirically that it is feasible for online execution and replanning. We present simulation examples of navigation in a wind field and surveillance with fuel constraints.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Bi-level Decision Making in Railway Transportation Management' in Multi-Level Decision Making, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 337-356.
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Transportation management is an important application field of bi-level decision-making. For example, transportation facilities, resources planning and moving, as well as staff relocation all involve sub-optimization and optimization problems, that is, the decision entities are often at two decision levels. This chapter presents two real applications of the bi-level decision techniques in railway transportation management.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Decision Making and Decision Support Systems' in Multi-Level Decision Making, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 3-24.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. This book addresses an important decision making area—multi-level decision-making. To help readers understand the following chapters of this book, this chapter presents fundamental concepts, models, and techniques of decision making and decision support systems (DSS), thus providing an introduction for the remaining chapters of this book.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Fuzzy Bi-level and Tri-level Decision Support Systems' in Multi-Level Decision Making, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 289-314.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. This chapter presents two multi-level decision support systems that implement related algorithms developed in previous chapters to support decision making in practice.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Fuzzy Bi-level Decision Making' in Multi-Level Decision Making, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 175-205.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. Various uncertain issues naturally appear in organizational bi-level decision problems. Fuzzy sets and fuzzy systems can be used to handle uncertainties. This chapter introduces related definitions, theorems and models of fuzzy bi-level decision-making (FBLDM) and develops related algorithms to solve the uncertain issues in bi-level decision-making.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Fuzzy Multi-objective Bi-level Decision Making' in Multi-Level Decision Making, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 207-228.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. we presented a set of solution approaches and related algorithms to solve a fuzzy bi-level programming problem. This chapter extends the results given in Chap. 7 by adding the capability to handle the multi-objective issue, that is, the leader, or the follower, or both have multiple objectives.

Abbas, SM, Ranga, Y & Esselle, KP 2015, 'Reconfigurable antenna options for 2.45/5 GHz wireless body area networks in healthcare applications', 2015 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), pp. 5465-5468.
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Abdolali, A, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Zhou, JL, Du, B, Wei, Q, Wang, XC & Nguyen, PD 2015, 'Characterization of a multi-metal binding biosorbent: Chemical modification and desorption studies', BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 193, pp. 477-487.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This work attends to preparation and characterization of a novel multi-metal binding biosorbent after chemical modification and desorption studies. Biomass is a combination of tea waste, maple leaves and mandarin peels with a certain proportion to adsorb cadmium, copper, lead and zinc ions from aqueous solutions. The mechanism involved in metal removal was investigated by SEM, SEM/EDS and FTIR. SEM/EDS showed the presence of different chemicals and adsorbed heavy metal ions on the surface of biosorbent. FTIR of both unmodified and modified biosorbents revealed the important role of carboxylate groups in heavy metal biosorption. Desorption using different eluents and 0.1M HCl showed the best desorption performance. The effectiveness of regeneration step by 1M CaCl2 on five successive cycles of sorption and desorption displays this multi-metal binding biosorbent (MMBB) can effectively be utilized as an adsorbent to remove heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions in five cycles of sorption/desorption/regeneration.

Abdullahi, S, Pradhan, B & Jebur, MN 2015, 'GIS-based sustainable city compactness assessment using integration of MCDM, Bayes theorem and RADAR technology', Geocarto International, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 365-387.

Abdullahi, S, Pradhan, B & Jebur, MN 2015, 'GIS-based sustainable city compactness assessment using integration of MCDM, Bayes theorem and RADAR technology', Geocarto International, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 365-387.
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Abdullahi, S, Pradhan, B, Mansor, S & Shariff, ARM 2015, 'GIS-based modeling for the spatial measurement and evaluation of mixed land use development for a compact city', GIScience & Remote Sensing, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 18-39.
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Abdullahi, S, Pradhan, B, Mansor, S & Shariff, ARM 2015, 'Urban sustainability analysis through Compact city: GIS-based modeling for spatial measurement and evaluation of mixed landuse development', GIScience and Remote Sensing, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 18-39.

Abolhasan, M, Lipman, J, Ni, W & Hagelstein, B 2015, 'Software-Defined Wireless Networking: Centralized, Distributed, or Hybrid?', IEEE NETWORK, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 32-38.
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© 2015 IEEE. Scalability is a key issue in large scale WDNs, such as vehicular networks and device-to-device networks. To address the issue, this article extends the SDN concept, and presents a new network architecture that eliminates the need of multi-hop flooding for route discovery, thereby enabling WDNs to scale. The key idea of the new architecture is to split network control and data forwarding by using two separate frequency bands. Another important aspect of the architecture is that computational complexity of routing is split between the SDN controller and the forwarding nodes, thereby allowing nodes to make distributed routing decisions. As a result, network control of the new architecture has a hybrid structure, which improves the operability and scalability of large scale WDNs. Our case study shows that the new architecture is able to substantially improve scalability and reliability of WDNs, especially in mobile environments.

Abousnina, RM, Nghiem, LD & Bundschuh, J 2015, 'Comparison between oily and coal seam gas produced water with respect to quantity, characteristics and treatment technologies: a review', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 54, no. 7, pp. 1793-1808.
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Abu Alsheikh, M, Hoang, DT, Niyato, D, Tan, H-P & Lin, S 2015, 'Markov Decision Processes With Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey', IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 1239-1267.
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Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of autonomous and resource-limited devices. The devices cooperate to monitor one or more physical phenomena within an area of interest. WSNs operate as stochastic systems because of randomness in the monitored environments. For long service time and low maintenance cost, WSNs require adaptive and robust methods to address data exchange, topology formulation, resource and power optimization, sensing coverage and object detection, and security challenges. In these problems, sensor nodes are used to make optimized decisions from a set of accessible strategies to achieve design goals. This survey reviews numerous applications of the Markov decision process (MDP) framework, a powerful decision-making tool to develop adaptive algorithms and protocols for WSNs. Furthermore, various solution methods are discussed and compared to serve as a guide for using MDPs in WSNs.

Acín, A, Duan, R, Roberson, DE, Sainz, AB & Winter, A 2015, 'A new property of the Lovász number and duality relations between graph parameters', Discrete Applied Mathematics, vol. 216, no. 3, pp. 3-501.
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We show that for any graph $G$, by considering 'activation' through thestrong product with another graph $H$, the relation $\alpha(G) \leq\vartheta(G)$ between the independence number and the Lov\'{a}sz number of $G$can be made arbitrarily tight: Precisely, the inequality \[ \alpha(G \times H) \leq \vartheta(G \times H) = \vartheta(G)\,\vartheta(H) \]becomes asymptotically an equality for a suitable sequence of ancillary graphs$H$. This motivates us to look for other products of graph parameters of $G$ and$H$ on the right hand side of the above relation. For instance, a result ofRosenfeld and Hales states that \[ \alpha(G \times H) \leq \alpha^*(G)\,\alpha(H), \] with the fractionalpacking number $\alpha^*(G)$, and for every $G$ there exists $H$ that makes theabove an equality; conversely, for every graph $H$ there is a $G$ that attainsequality. These findings constitute some sort of duality of graph parameters, mediatedthrough the independence number, under which $\alpha$ and $\alpha^*$ are dualto each other, and the Lov\'{a}sz number $\vartheta$ is self-dual. We also showduality of Schrijver's and Szegedy's variants $\vartheta^-$ and $\vartheta^+$of the Lov\'{a}sz number, and explore analogous notions for the chromaticnumber under strong and disjunctive graph products.

Acuna, P, Moran, L, Rivera, M, Aguilera, R, Burgos, R & Agelidis, VG 2015, 'A Single-Objective Predictive Control Method for a Multivariable Single-Phase Three-Level NPC Converter-Based Active Power Filter', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 7, pp. 4598-4607.
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© 1982-2012 IEEE. A single-objective predictive control method that deals with four main control objectives applied to a multivariable single-phase three-level neutral-point-clamped converter operating as an active power filter is proposed in this paper. The four control objectives are to self-support the dc-bus voltage under load variations, to compensate the reactive power and the current harmonics, and to balance the dc capacitor voltages by using a predefined combination of the redundant switching states of the converter. The main contribution of the proposed method is that these objectives are accomplished without using weighting factors in the cost function, which eliminates problems such as multiobjective optimization or additional empirical procedures for determination of these factors. As a result, the method is easy to implement and rapidly selects the optimal voltage to improve the dynamic-state performance. Experimental results from a 2-kVA prototype are presented to prove that the method is valid for single-phase compensation. The well-known effect of model parameter errors' issue, which is inherent in predictive control methods, is also tested to confirm that the harmonic distortion in the grid current is below 5% even when the predictive model has a 25% error between actual and theoretically estimated grid impedance values.

Aditiya, HB, Sing, KP, Hanif, M & Mahlia, TMI 2015, 'Effect of Acid Pretreatment on Enzymatic Hydrolysis in Bioethanol Production from Rice Straw', International Journal of Technology, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 3-3.
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© IJTech 2015. Clean, safe and sustainable energy sources must be found to minimize all side-effects of fossil fuel consumption. Second generation bioethanol possesses a great potential as an alternative energy source especially in the transportation sector. In this study, rice straw was selected to be studied as a conversion of potential lignocellulosic biomass into bioethanol. Firstly, rice straw was processed with mechanical pretreatment using a home blender, followed by acid pretreatment using 2.0 M sulphuric acid (H2SO4) at 90°C for 60 minutes. The glucose yield was found to be 9.71 g/L. Then, rice straw pretreated with acid was hydrolyzed using 24 mg of cellulase from Tichoderma Ressei ATCC 26921 over a 72-hour duration, which yielded a total glucose count of 11.466 g/L. After fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, it was found that by combining enzymatic hydrolysis with acid pretreatment yielded a higher ethanol content after fermentation (0.1503% or 52.75% of theoretical value) compared to acidic pretreatment alone (0.013% or 11.26% of theoretical value).

Afroz, F, Heidery, R, Shehab, M, Sandrasegaran, K & Shompa, SS 2015, 'Comparative Analysis of Downlink Packet Scheduling Algorithms in 3GPP LTE Networks', International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 1-21.
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Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile network aims to support high speed network services even in highmobility scenarios. To achieve this goal, LTE adopts some advanced features in Radio Resource Management (RRM) procedures. Among them, LTE packet scheduling plays a fundamental role in maximising system performance. In this paper, a comparative analysis on the performances of Proportional Fair (PF), Exponential/Proportional Fair (EXP/PF), Exponential (EXP) Rule, MaximumLargest Weighted Delay First (M-LWDF), Logarithmic (LOG) Rule and Frame Level Scheduler (FLS) LTE downlink packet scheduling algorithms is reported. Performance is evaluated in single cell with interference environment while increasing user number and user speed. Results show that for multimedia flow, FLS scheme outperforms other five schemes in terms of packet delay, packet loss ratio, and average throughput, whereas for best-effort flow, EXP-PF scheme shows better average throughput performance on average as compared with other algorithms being considered herein.

Afroz, F, Huq, A, F, A & Sandrasegaran, K 2015, 'Performance Analysis of Adaptive Noise Canceller Employing NLMS Algorithm', International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 45-58.
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Afroz, F, Sandrasegaran, K & H, AK 2015, 'Interference Management in Lte Downlink Networks', International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 91-106.
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Afroz, F, Subramanian, R, Heidary, R, Sandrasegaran, K & Ahmed, S 2015, 'SINR, RSRP, RSSI and RSRQ Measurements in Long Term Evolution Networks', International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 113-123.
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Afshar, S, George, L, Thakur, CS, Tapson, J, van Schaik, A, de Chazal, P & Hamilton, TJ 2015, 'Turn Down That Noise: Synaptic Encoding of Afferent SNR in a Single Spiking Neuron', IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 188-196.
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Afzal, MU & Esselle, KP 2015, 'Quasi-analytical synthesis of continuous phase correcting structures to increase the directivity of circularly polarized Fabry-Perot resonator antennas', Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 117, no. 21, pp. 214902-214902.
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This paper presents a quasi-analytical technique to design a continuous, all-dielectric phase correcting structures (PCSs) for circularly polarized Fabry-Perot resonator antennas (FPRAs). The PCS has been realized by varying the thickness of a rotationally symmetric dielectric block placed above the antenna. A global analytical expression is derived for the PCS thickness profile, which is required to achieve nearly uniform phase distribution at the output of the PCS, despite the non-uniform phase distribution at its input. An alternative piecewise technique based on spline interpolation is also explored to design a PCS. It is shown from both far- and near-field results that a PCS tremendously improves the radiation performance of the FPRA. These improvements include an increase in peak directivity from 22 to 120 (from 13.4 dBic to 20.8 dBic) and a decrease of 3 dB beamwidth from 41.5° to 15°. The phase-corrected antenna also has a good directivity bandwidth of 1.3 GHz, which is 11% of the center frequency.

Afzal, MU, Esselle, KP & Zeb, BA 2015, 'Dielectric Phase-Correcting Structures for Electromagnetic Band Gap Resonator Antennas', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 63, no. 8, pp. 3390-3399.
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A novel technique to design a phase-correcting structure (PCS) for an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) resonator antenna (ERA) is presented. The aperture field of a classical ERA has a significantly nonuniform phase distribution, which adversely affects its radiation characteristics. An all-dielectric PCS was designed to transform such a phase distribution to a nearly uniform phase distribution. A prototype designed using proposed technique was fabricated and tested to verify proposed methodology and to validate predicted results. A very good agreement between the predicted and the measured results is noted. Significant increase in antenna performance has been achieved due to this phase correction, including 9-dB improvement in antenna directivity (from 12.3 dBi to 21.6 dBi), lower side lobes, higher gain, and better aperture efficiency. The phase-corrected antenna has a 3-dB directivity bandwidth of 8%.

Aguilera, RP & Quevedo, DE 2015, 'Predictive Control of Power Converters: Designs With Guaranteed Performance', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 53-63.
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Aguilera, RP, Lezana, P & Quevedo, DE 2015, 'Switched Model Predictive Control for Improved Transient and Steady-State Performance', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 968-977.
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Ahmed, M, Khawaja, M, Notarianni, M, Wang, B, Goding, D, Gupta, B, Boeckl, JJ, Takshi, A, Motta, N, Saddow, SE & Iacopi, F 2015, 'A thin film approach for SiC-derived graphene as an on-chip electrode for supercapacitors', Nanotechnology, vol. 26, no. 43, pp. 434005-434005.
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Ahmed, MB, Zhou, JL, Ngo, HH & Guo, W 2015, 'Adsorptive removal of antibiotics from water and wastewater: Progress and challenges', SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 532, pp. 112-126.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Antibiotics as emerging contaminants are of global concern due to the development of antibiotic resistant genes potentially causing superbugs. Current wastewater treatment technology cannot sufficiently remove antibiotics from sewage, hence new and low-cost technology is needed. Adsorptive materials have been extensively used for the conditioning, remediation and removal of inorganic and organic hazardous materials, although their application for removing antibiotics has been reported for ~30 out of 250 antibiotics so far. The literature on the adsorptive removal of antibiotics using different adsorptive materials is summarized and critically reviewed, by comparing different adsorbents with varying physicochemical characteristics. The efficiency for removing antibiotics from water and wastewater by different adsorbents has been evaluated by examining their adsorption coefficient (Kd) values. For sulfamethoxazole the different adsorbents followed the trend: biochar (BC)>multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)>graphite=clay minerals, and for tetracycline the adsorptive materials followed the trend: SWCNT>graphite>MWCNT=activated carbon (AC)>bentonite=humic substance=clay minerals. The underlying controlling parameters for the adsorption technology have been examined. In addition, the cost of preparing adsorbents has been estimated, which followed the order of BCs

Ahmed, S, Afroz, F, Tawsif, A & Huq, A 2015, 'Cancellation of White and Color Noise with Adaptive Filter Using LMS Algorithm', IJWMN, vol. vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 19-36.

Akbarnezhad, A, Huan, M, Mesgari, S & Castel, A 2015, 'Recycling of geopolymer concrete', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 101, pp. 152-158.
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Akhiani, AR, Mehrali, M, Tahan Latibari, S, Mehrali, M, Mahlia, TMI, Sadeghinezhad, E & Metselaar, HSC 2015, 'One-Step Preparation of Form-Stable Phase Change Material through Self-Assembly of Fatty Acid and Graphene', The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, vol. 119, no. 40, pp. 22787-22796.
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Akther, N, Sodiq, A, Giwa, A, Daer, S, Arafat, HA & Hasan, SW 2015, 'Recent advancements in forward osmosis desalination: A review', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 281, pp. 502-522.
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© 2015. Forward osmosis (FO) is one of the evolving membrane technologies in desalination with recent expanded new interest as a low energy process. The most significant parts of FO process are the membrane and draw solution since both play a substantial role in its performance. Hence, the selection of an appropriate membrane and draw solution is crucial for the process efficiency. Improvements in the development of membranes and draw solutes have been recorded recently. However, limitations such as fouling of FO membranes, reverse solute flux, concentration polarization, and low permeate flux in standalone FO systems. This work targets the review of recent progress in FO, aiming on the prospects and challenges. It starts with addressing the advantages of the FO process. The crucial part of this review is a thorough discussion of hybrid FO systems, different FO membranes, and draw solutes available coupled with their effects on FO performance. Finally, the future of FO for sustainable desalination is also discussed.

Al Aattas, M & Kang, K 2015, 'Saudi Enterprise and Critical Success Factors', The Journal of Organizational Management Studies, vol. 2015, pp. 1-8.
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The importance of the business systems is ever increasingly, as the new and innovative systems are being used by organizations to improve their competitiveness. Based on the literature review, this research identifies four factors that can impact the success of new business systems in Saudi enterprise. However, the role of culture also cannot be neglected in the Saudi firms which aim to improve their businesses systems. This research is proposing a conceptual model that describes the culture impact on the success of new business systems in Saudi enterprises related to collaboration and IT experience, and the characteristics related to IT systems: usefulness and efficiency.

Al Aattas, MI & Kang, K 2015, 'Cultural impact on the success of new business systems in Saudi enterprises', Asian Journal of Information Technology, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 129-134.
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The significance of the business systems is ever increasingly in firms to improve their competitiveness is using a new technology in the business system, in particular in Saudi enterprise. This research propose a conceptual model that describes the culture impact related to collaboration and IT experience and the characteristics related to IT systems: usefulness and efficiency on the success of new business systems in Saudi enterprises. The empirical findings show these factors have significant effects on new business system success.

Al Mahmud, KAH, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH & Abdollah, MFB 2015, 'Tribological Study of a Tetrahedral Diamond-Like Carbon Coating under Vegetable Oil–Based Lubricated Condition', Tribology Transactions, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 907-913.
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Al Mahmud, KAH, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Mobarak, HM & Zulkifli, NWM 2015, 'An updated overview of diamond-like carbon coating in tribology', Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 90-118.
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Albahri, A, Lech, M & Cheng, E 2015, 'Effect of Speech Compression on the Automatic Recognition of Emotions', International Journal of Signal Processing Systems, vol. 4, no. 1.
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Al-Hassan, M, Lu, H & Lu, J 2015, 'A semantic enhanced hybrid recommendation approach: A case study of e-Government tourism service recommendation system', DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, vol. 72, pp. 97-109.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V.All rights reserved. Recommender systems are effectively used as a personalized information filtering technology to automatically predict and identify a set of interesting items on behalf of users according to their personal needs and preferences. Collaborative Filtering (CF) approach is commonly used in the context of recommender systems; however, obtaining better prediction accuracy and overcoming the main limitations of the standard CF recommendation algorithms, such as sparsity and cold-start item problems, remain a significant challenge. Recent developments in personalization and recommendation techniques support the use of semantic enhanced hybrid recommender systems, which incorporate ontology-based semantic similarity measure with other recommendation approaches to improve the quality of recommendations. Consequently, this paper presents the effectiveness of utilizing semantic knowledge of items to enhance the recommendation quality. It proposes a new Inferential Ontology-based Semantic Similarity (IOBSS) measure to evaluate semantic similarity between items in a specific domain of interest by taking into account their explicit hierarchical relationships, shared attributes and implicit relationships. The paper further proposes a hybrid semantic enhanced recommendation approach by combining the new IOBSS measure and the standard item-based CF approach. A set of experiments with promising results validates the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid approach, using a case study of the Australian e-Government tourism services.

Almabrok, MH, McLaughlan, RG & Vessalas, K 2015, 'Effect of Curing and Mixing Methods on the Compressive Strength of Mortar Containing Oil', Journal of Civil Engineering, Science and Technology, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 6-11.
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 Oil contaminated fine aggregate is a major environmental concern and can arise as a by product of industrial activities (e.g. oil well drilling and land contamination). Cement–based stabilisation/solidification of oil contaminated materials is an emerging technology however there are some issues that have not been fully addressed. This paper reports the results of a study conducted to investigate the effect of different curing and mixing methods on cement solidification and its consequent effect on the compressive strength of the resultant cementitious product. This work has been done to address leaching concerns during the curing period. The normal curing method for samples to be tested for compressive strength is lime saturated water. However, this method invalidates any subsequent leaching tests. Accordingly, bag curing (BC) and lime saturated water curing (LSW) have been applied using mortar mixed with mineral oil up to 10% by sand mass under water wet (WW) or oil wet (OW) mixing methods. The results indicate that development in 28 day compressive strength can be achieved without applying water by external means if the moisture movement from the mortar samples is prohibited, irrespective of the mixing methods used.

Al-Mahmoud, F, Castel, A, Minh, TQ & François, R 2015, 'Reinforced Concrete Beams Strengthened with NSM CFRP Rods in Shear', Advances in Structural Engineering, vol. 18, no. 10, pp. 1563-1574.
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This experimental research aims to investigate the possibility of using Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) rods to strengthen in shear concrete structural members with the Near Surface Mounted reinforcement (NSM) technique. Seven reinforced concrete beams were tested in flexure with or without traditional shear reinforcement. Carbon-epoxy pultruded FRP (CFRP) rods with 6 mm in diameter were used. The possibility of using a mortar as filling material with surface pre-conditioned CFRP rod is investigated and compared to resin performance. Results show that NSM technique is very efficient to strengthen reinforced concrete beam in shear. Using the resin instead of mortar as the filling material still increases the efficiency of the shear strengthening but the gain is only moderate. The experimental results are compared with existing analytical models.

Al-sharif, AAA & Pradhan, B 2015, 'A novel approach for predicting the spatial patterns of urban expansion by combining the chi-squared automatic integration detection decision tree, Markov chain and cellular automata models in GIS', Geocarto International, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 858-881.
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Alsharif, AAA, Pradhan, B, Mansor, S & Shafri, HZM 2015, 'Urban expansion assessment by using remotely sensed data and the relative Shannon entropy model in GIS: A case study of Tripoli, Libya', Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 55-71.
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Urban growth is a spatial dynamic phenomenon that indicates population growth, economic expansion, city importance level, and so on. The use of current and historical data in urbanization analysis is necessary in urban spatial studies and future urban planning. This research aims to study, examine, and assess the urban expansion of Tripoli spatially and temporally by using remotely sensed data, geographic information systems (GIS), and the statistical relative Shannon entropy model. Remotely sensed data (four satellite images from 1984, 1996, 2002, and 2010) and GIS were used to determine the extent of urban area and urban growth in Tripoli in five different directions. Shannon’s entropy model was implemented to analyze and assess urban expansion trends as a process and pattern in the study area. Results show that the Tripoli metropolitan area has a high level of sprawl along its urban expansion history. The hypothesis employed for Shannon’s entropy zone division produces good insights on overall urban growth, urban growth direction, and specific urban growth over time. The obtained results provide good guidance for modeling urban sprawl processes, understanding urbanization causative factors, and predicting future urban patterns. Furthermore, the findings of current paper can be used by decision makers and urban planners to identify past and present urban expansions tendencies to prepare for future urban demands.

Altaee, A & Hilal, N 2015, 'Design optimization of high performance dual stage pressure retarded osmosis', Desalination, vol. 355, pp. 217-224.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Dual stage PRO process was proposed for power generation. The present study evaluated two design configurations of the dual stage PRO process. The old dual stage PRO design was modified to enhance the process performance. In the new design, the entire seawater flow from the first stage goes to the second stage to increase the second stage membrane flux. Seawater salinities between 32. g/L and 45. g/L were tested to investigate the effect of draw solution TDS on the process performance. The results showed that PRO process performed better at higher seawater salinity. Furthermore, the performance of the new dual stage PRO design was higher than that of the old dual stage PRO process. Power density in the new dual stage PRO design was 17.4% higher than that in the old dual stage PRO design. Mainly, this was attributed to the higher membrane flux in the modified PRO design. It was also found that the specific power consumption of the new PRO design was about 8% less than that of the old PRO design. Finally, the results also showed that for a given plant capacity, the membrane elements required in the new PRO design were less than that in the old PRO design. As such, the proposed new design would be suggested for power generation for being more efficient and at cheaper cost.

Altaee, A & Hilal, N 2015, 'High recovery rate NF–FO–RO hybrid system for inland brackish water treatment', Desalination, vol. 363, pp. 19-25.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Brackish water desalination is a common method for fresh water supply in arid areas. Concentrated brine is the major waste stream generated from the desalination process. The current study proposes a multi-stage Nanofiltration (NF)-Forward Osmosis (FO)-Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis (BWRO) system to increase the recovery rate of brackish water. The simulation results showed that the NF-FO-BWRO system was able to achieve >. 90% recovery rate for a number of feed salinities varied from 1 to 2.4. g/L. High permeability NF membrane was used in the first stage to produce the first permeate flow at relatively low power consumption. Concentrated brine from the NF was fed to an FO membrane for power for additional fresh water extraction before disposal. 0.25-0.5. M NaCl was used as the draw solution in the FO membrane. The results showed that system recovery rate increased with increasing the concentration of the draw solution. NF process was responsible of 75% of the total recovery rate while BWRO process contribution was up to 20%. Almost 80% of the total power consumption for desalination was due to the BWRO process. NF and FO processes accounted for the rest 20% power consumption. The BWRO system also required 2 to 3 times more membranes than FO and NF processes. NF-FO-BWRO is flexible and can generate different proportions of permeate flows through controlling the recovery rates of each component.

Altaee, A & Sharif, A 2015, 'A conceptual NF/RO arrangement design in the pressure vessel for seawater desalination', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 624-636.
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© 2014, © 2014 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Abstract: The main objective of this study is to understand the operation mechanisms of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane and optimization of the operating mechanisms of the RO system in order to reduce the membrane fouling and/or energy requirements. Typically, the high-pressure RO membrane vessel is loaded with membrane elements having the same flux and salt rejection rate. It has been conceived that when different types of RO elements are loaded into the pressure vessel in a special arrangement according to their permeability and salt rejection rate, this arrangement has the potential for reducing the energy consumption of the RO plant. Here, a conceptual design is introduced to describe this new idea. The effects of feed salinity and temperature were investigated in this paper using the reverse osmosis system analysis filmtec membrane design software. A two pass membrane treatment process was designed for desalting seawater at different salinities varied from 35,000 ppm to 43,000 ppm. The results showed a net energy saving from 2.5 to 3% (depends on the feed salinity) could be achieved. The effect of the feed temperature was also investigated, and the new design was found to be more energy efficient. Membrane scaling was also investigated in this study, and it was found that the new membrane arrangement design was less efficient than old design at feed salinity 35,000 ppm and vice versa at feed salinity 45,000 ppm. This was attributed to the use of high membranes permeabilities in the new design.

Altaee, A & Sharif, A 2015, 'Pressure retarded osmosis: advancement in the process applications for power generation and desalination', Desalination, vol. 356, pp. 31-46.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. The current study highlights the advancement in Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO) process and covers most recent development in the process applications. The first application of PRO process goes back to 1973 by Sidney Loeb who suggested using the concept of osmotic energy for power generation. In principle, two solutions of different concentrations are separated by semipermeable membrane of, relatively, high water permeability and solute rejection rate. The high-concentration solution is usually known as the draw solution while the low-concentration solution is called the feed solution. The draw solution is pressurized before entering the membrane. Due to the osmotic pressure gradient across the membrane, fresh water transports in the direction of the osmotic pressure gradients resulting in the dilution of the high-concentration solution. After leaving the membrane, the diluted draw solution is depressurized in a turbine system for power generation. Different types of membrane materials and solute gradient resources were proposed and their impact on the performance of PRO process was investigated. In addition to power generation, the hybridization of PRO process with membrane and thermal processes for power generation and seawater desalination is not unusual nowadays. The current study provides a critical review about the recent advancements in the PRO process and research outcomes.

Altaee, A, Sharif, A, Zaragoza, G & Ismail, AF 2015, 'Evaluation of FO-RO and PRO-RO designs for power generation and seawater desalination using impaired water feeds', Desalination, vol. 368, pp. 27-35.
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Crown Copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PRO and FO coupling with an RO membrane process is proposed to reduce the cost of seawater desalination and the potential for power generation. Three conceptual design configurations, PRO-RO, FO-RO and RO-PRO were evaluated here using standard seawater concentration and impaired water as the draw and the feed solutions respectively. The PRO-RO and RO-PRO designs were evaluated for power generation and seawater desalination while the FO-RO design was proposed for seawater desalination only. The impact of the draw and feed solutions' flow rate and the impaired water TDS on the performance of each design was estimated using pre-developed software. The simulation results showed that the performance of all designs was more sensitive to the increase in the flow rate of draw solution than to the flow rate of feed solution. Furthermore, all designs showed a decrease in membrane flux and recovery rate with increasing the TDS of feed water from 0.2 g/L to 10 g/L as a result of decreasing the net driving force across the membrane and the concentration polarization phenomenon. The FO-RO design produced the lowest RO permeate concentration followed by the PRO-RO and RO-PRO designs respectively. In terms of power generation, the RO-PRO design was more efficient than the PRO-RO design. The FO-RO design exhibited the lowest desalination power consumption followed by the PRO-RO and RO-PRO designs respectively. At 10 g/L feed concentration, the net power consumption in the FO-RO was 9.4% less than that in the PRO-RO which was in turn 5.3% less than that in the RO-PRO design. The estimated cost of the FO/PRO module in the PRO-RO design was 2.2 and 4.3 times higher than that in the FO-RO and RO-PRO designs respectively.

Althuwaynee, OF, Pradhan, B & Ahmad, N 2015, 'Estimation of rainfall threshold and its use in landslide hazard mapping of Kuala Lumpur metropolitan and surrounding areas', Landslides, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 861-875.
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Alvandi, S, Bienert, G, Li, W & Kara, S 2015, 'Hierarchical Modelling of Complex Material and Energy Flow in Manufacturing Systems', Procedia CIRP, vol. 29, pp. 92-97.
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Alzoubi, YI, Gill, AQ & Al-Ani, A 2015, 'Distributed Agile Development Communication: An Agile Architecture Driven Framework.', J. Softw., vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 681-694.
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Agile methods depend on active communication and effective knowledge sharing among team members for producing high quality working software systems in short releases and iterations. However, effective communication in Distributed Agile Development (DAD) can be challenging due to a number of different factors, such as physical locations, multi-cultures and time-zones. The agile body of knowledge mainly discusses some technology and non-technology solutions and strategies to mitigate the DAD communication challenges from a project management perspective. Nevertheless, it has recently been argued that there is a need to understand and analyze DAD communication from other related but different perspectives, such as enterprise strategy, enterprise architecture and service management. Due to the fact that agile EA provides a holistic view and blueprint of the whole environment in which a number of projects are developed and managed, we attempt in this study to explore the effect of agile Enterprise Architecture (EA) on DAD communication. Particularly, we propose the development of an agile EA driven approach from the architecture body of knowledge for handling the DAD communication challenges that have not been thoroughly investigated before

AMARJARGAL, A, TIJING, LD & KIM, CS 2015, 'Simple fabrication of Ag nanoparticle-impregnated electrospun nanofibres as SERS substrates', Bulletin of Materials Science, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 267-270.
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Ambainis, A, Balodis, K, Belovs, A, Lee, T, Santha, M & Smotrovs, J 2015, 'Separations in Query Complexity Based on Pointer Functions', Journal of the ACM, vol. 64, no. 5.
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In 1986, Saks and Wigderson conjectured that the largest separation betweendeterministic and zero-error randomized query complexity for a total booleanfunction is given by the function $f$ on $n=2^k$ bits defined by a completebinary tree of NAND gates of depth $k$, which achieves $R_0(f) =O(D(f)^{0.7537\ldots})$. We show this is false by giving an example of a totalboolean function $f$ on $n$ bits whose deterministic query complexity is$\Omega(n/\log(n))$ while its zero-error randomized query complexity is $\tildeO(\sqrt{n})$. We further show that the quantum query complexity of the samefunction is $\tilde O(n^{1/4})$, giving the first example of a total functionwith a super-quadratic gap between its quantum and deterministic querycomplexities. We also construct a total boolean function $g$ on $n$ variables that haszero-error randomized query complexity $\Omega(n/\log(n))$ and bounded-errorrandomized query complexity $R(g) = \tilde O(\sqrt{n})$. This is the firstsuper-linear separation between these two complexity measures. The exactquantum query complexity of the same function is $Q_E(g) = \tilde O(\sqrt{n})$. These two functions show that the relations $D(f) = O(R_1(f)^2)$ and $R_0(f)= \tilde O(R(f)^2)$ are optimal, up to poly-logarithmic factors. Furthervariations of these functions give additional separations between other querycomplexity measures: a cubic separation between $Q$ and $R_0$, a $3/2$-powerseparation between $Q_E$ and $R$, and a 4th power separation betweenapproximate degree and bounded-error randomized query complexity. All of these examples are variants of a function recently introduced by\goos, Pitassi, and Watson which they used to separate the unambiguous1-certificate complexity from deterministic query complexity and to resolve thefamous Clique versus Independent Set problem in communication complexity.

An, L & Lu, DD-C 2015, 'Design of a Single-Switch DC/DC Converter for a PV-Battery-Powered Pump System With PFM+PWM Control', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 910-921.
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© 2014 IEEE. A single-switch nonisolated dc/dc converter for a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV)-battery-powered pump system is proposed in this paper. The converter is formed by combining a buck converter with a buck-boost converter. This integration also resulted in reduced repeated power processing, hence improving the conversion efficiency. With only a single transistor, the converter is able to perform three tasks simultaneously, namely, maximum-power-point tracking (MPPT), battery charging, and driving the pump at constant flow rate. To achieve these control objectives, the two inductors operate in different modes such that variable switching frequency control and duty cycle control can be used to manage MPPT and output voltage regulation, respectively. The battery in the converter provides a more steady dc-link voltage as compared to that of a conventional single-stage converter and hence mitigates the high voltage stress problem. Experimental results of a 14-W laboratory prototype converter with a maximum efficiency of 92% confirmed the performance of the proposed converter when used in a PV-battery pump system.

An, X, Gao, Y, Fang, J, Sun, G & Li, Q 2015, 'Crashworthiness design for foam-filled thin-walled structures with functionally lateral graded thickness sheets', Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 91, pp. 63-71.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. Crash components in automobiles are probably subjected to multiple loading conditions in real life, such as axial crushing and lateral bending. Unlike most of the existing work that solely focuses on the pure axial crushing or lateral bending, this paper attempts to accommodate both by proposing a novel structure, namely foam-filled thin-wall tube with functionally lateral graded thickness (FLGT). From numerical study of FLGT structures, they are found to exhibit noticeable advantage over the corresponding traditional uniform thickness (UT) structures with the same weight under both axial crushing and lateral bending. Moreover, the gradient governing the varying thickness shows significant influence on the crashworthiness performance of FLGT. To seek for the optimal gradient, a multi-objective optimization is carried out using multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm, where response surface models are established to formulate the objectives functions, i.e. specific energy absorption (SEA) and peak impact force (Fpeak). The optimization results show that the foam-filled structure with FLGT can produce more promising Pareto solutions than traditional UT counterparts. Therefore, the FLGT structure could have potential applications subjected to different loading conditions.

Anaissi, A, Goyal, M, Catchpoole, DR, Braytee, A & Kennedy, PJ 2015, 'Case-Based Retrieval Framework for Gene Expression Data', Cancer Informatics, vol. 14, pp. CIN.S22371-CIN.S22371.
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Background The process of retrieving similar cases in a case-based reasoning system is considered a big challenge for gene expression data sets. The huge number of gene expression values generated by microarray technology leads to complex data sets and similarity measures for high-dimensional data are problematic. Hence, gene expression similarity measurements require numerous machine-learning and data-mining techniques, such as feature selection and dimensionality reduction, to be incorporated into the retrieval process. Methods This article proposes a case-based retrieval framework that uses a k-nearest-neighbor classifier with a weighted-feature-based similarity to retrieve previously treated patients based on their gene expression profiles. Results The herein-proposed methodology is validated on several data sets: a childhood leukemia data set collected from The Children's Hospital at Westmead, as well as the Colon cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Prostate cancer data sets. Results obtained by the proposed framework in retrieving patients of the data sets who are similar to new patients are as follows: 96% accuracy on the childhood leukemia data set, 95% on the NCI data set, 93% on the Colon cancer data set, and 98% on the Prostate cancer data set. Conclusion The designed case-based retrieval framework is an appropriate choice for retrieving previous patients who are similar to a new patient, on the basis of their gene expression data, for better diagnosis and treatment of childhood leukemia. Moreover, this framework can be applied to other gene expression data sets using some or all of its steps.

Andersson, AK, Ma, J, Wang, J, Chen, X, Gedman, AL, Dang, J, Nakitandwe, J, Holmfeldt, L, Parker, M, Easton, J, Huether, R, Kriwacki, R, Rusch, M, Wu, G, Li, Y, Mulder, H, Raimondi, S, Pounds, S, Kang, G, Shi, L, Becksfort, J, Gupta, P, Payne-Turner, D, Vadodaria, B, Boggs, K, Yergeau, D, Manne, J, Song, G, Edmonson, M, Nagahawatte, P, Wei, L, Cheng, C, Pei, D, Sutton, R, Venn, NC, Chetcuti, A, Rush, A, Catchpoole, D, Heldrup, J, Fioretos, T, Lu, C, Ding, L, Pui, C-H, Shurtleff, S, Mullighan, CG, Mardis, ER, Wilson, RK, Gruber, TA, Zhang, J, Downing, JR & Hosp-Washin, SJCR 2015, 'The landscape of somatic mutations in infant MLL-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemias', NATURE GENETICS, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 330-U192.
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Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with MLL rearrangements (MLL-R) represents a distinct leukemia with a poor prognosis. To define its mutational landscape, we performed whole-genome, exome, RNA and targeted DNA sequencing on 65 infants (47 MLL-R and 18 non-MLL-R cases) and 20 older children (MLL-R cases) with leukemia. Our data show that infant MLL-R ALL has one of the lowest frequencies of somatic mutations of any sequenced cancer, with the predominant leukemic clone carrying a mean of 1.3 non-silent mutations. Despite this paucity of mutations, we detected activating mutations in kinase-PI3K-RAS signaling pathway components in 47% of cases. Surprisingly, these mutations were often subclonal and were frequently lost at relapse. In contrast to infant cases, MLL-R leukemia in older children had more somatic mutations (mean of 6.5 mutations/case versus 1.3 mutations/case, P = 7.15 × 10(-5)) and had frequent mutations (45%) in epigenetic regulators, a category of genes that, with the exception of MLL, was rarely mutated in infant MLL-R ALL.

Andrews, T, Dyson, LE & Wishart, J 2015, 'Advancing ethics frameworks and scenario-based learning to support educational research into mobile learning', International Journal of Research & Method in Education, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 320-334.
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Angelini, L, Lalanne, D, Hoven, E, Khaled, O & Mugellini, E 2015, 'Move, Hold and Touch: A Framework for Tangible Gesture Interactive Systems', Machines, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 173-207.
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Technology is spreading in our everyday world, and digital interaction beyond the screen, with real objects, allows taking advantage of our natural manipulative and communicative skills. Tangible gesture interaction takes advantage of these skills by bridging two popular domains in Human-Computer Interaction, tangible interaction and gestural interaction. In this paper, we present the Tangible Gesture Interaction Framework (TGIF) for classifying and guiding works in this field. We propose a classification of gestures according to three relationships with objects: move, hold and touch. Following this classification, we analyzed previous work in the literature to obtain guidelines and common practices for designing and building new tangible gesture interactive systems. We describe four interactive systems as application examples of the TGIF guidelines and we discuss the descriptive, evaluative and generative power of TGIF.

Ansari, AJ, Hai, FI, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Selection of forward osmosis draw solutes for subsequent integration with anaerobic treatment to facilitate resource recovery from wastewater', Bioresource Technology, vol. 191, pp. 30-36.
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Aquilina, P, Parr, WCH, Chamoli, U & Wroe, S 2015, 'Finite Element Analysis of Patient-Specific Condyle Fracture Plates: A Preliminary Study', Craniomaxillofacial Trauma & Reconstruction, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 111-116.
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Various patterns of internal fixation of mandibular condyle fractures have been proposed in the literature. This study investigates the stability of two patient-specific implants (PSIs) for the open reduction and internal fixation of a subcondylar fracture of the mandible. A subcondylar fracture of a mandible was simulated by a series of finite element models. These models contained approximately 1.2 million elements, were heterogeneous in bone material properties, and also modeled the muscles of mastication. Models were run assuming linear elasticity and isotropic material properties for bone. The stability and von Mises stresses of the simulated condylar fracture reduced with each of the PSIs were compared. The most stable of the plate configurations examined was PSI 1, which had comparable mechanical performance to a single 2.0 mm straight four-hole plate.

Arbab, MI, Varman, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Imtenan, S, Sajjad, H & Rizwanul Fattah, IM 2015, 'Evaluation of combustion, performance, and emissions of optimum palm–coconut blend in turbocharged and non-turbocharged conditions of a diesel engine', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 90, pp. 111-120.
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Fossil fuel depletion, global warming with rapid changes in climate, and increases in oil prices have motivated scientists to search for alternative fuel. Biodiesel can be an effective solution despite some limitations, such as poor fuel properties and engine performance. From this perspective, experiments were carried out to improve fuel properties and engine performance by using a binary blend of palm and coconut biodiesel at an optimized ratio. MATLAB optimization tool was used to determine this blend ratio. A new biodiesel was developed and represented by PC (optimum blend of palm and coconut biodiesel). Engine performance and emission were tested under a full load at variable speed condition by using a 20% blend of each biodiesel with petroleum diesel, and the results were compared with petroleum diesel under both turbocharged and non-turbocharged conditions. PC20 (blend of 20% PC biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel) showed the highest engine power with lower brake-specific fuel consumption than the other tested fuels in the presence of a turbocharger. The emissions of PC20 were lower than those of all other tested fuels. The experimental analysis reveals that PC showed superior performance and emission over palm biodiesel blend.

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, SW & Nguyen, H 2015, 'Controllability Analysis of Two-Dimensional Systems Using 1D Approaches', IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, vol. 60, no. 11, pp. 2977-2982.
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© 1963-2012 IEEE. Working with the 1D form of 2D systems is an alternative strategy to reduce the inherent complexity of 2D systems. To achieve the 1D form of 2D systems, different from the so-called WAM model, a new row (column) process was proposed recently. The controllability analysis of this new 1D form is explored in this note. Two new notions of controllability named WAM-controllability and directional controllability for the underlying 2D systems are defined. Corresponding conditions on the WAM-controllability and directional controllability are derived, which are particularly useful for the control problems of 2D systems via 1D framework. According to the presented directional controllability, a directional minimum energy control input is derived for 2D systems. A numerical example demonstrates the applicability of the presented analysis.

Arslan, A, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Kalam, MA, Quazi, MM, Al Mahmud, KAH, Gulzar, M & Habibullah, M 2015, 'Effects of texture diameter and depth on the tribological performance of DLC coating under lubricated sliding condition', Applied Surface Science, vol. 356, pp. 1135-1149.
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Aryal, R, Furumai, H, Nakajima, F, Beecham, S & Kandasamy, J 2015, 'Characterisation of Prolonged Deposits of Organic Matter in Infiltration System Inlets and Their Binding with Heavy Metals: a PARAFAC Approach', Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, vol. 226, no. 6.
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Aryal, R, Lee, B-K, Beecham, S, Kandasamy, J, Aryal, N & Parajuli, K 2015, 'Characterisation of Road Dust Organic Matter as a Function of Particle Size: A PARAFAC Approach', Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, vol. 226, no. 2.
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Asadnia, M, Kottapalli, AGP, Miao, J, Warkiani, ME & Triantafyllou, MS 2015, 'Artificial fish skin of self-powered micro-electromechanical systems hair cells for sensing hydrodynamic flow phenomena', Journal of The Royal Society Interface, vol. 12, no. 111, pp. 20150322-20150322.
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Using biological sensors, aquatic animals like fishes are capable of performing impressive behaviours such as super-manoeuvrability, hydrodynamic flow ‘vision’ and object localization with a success unmatched by human-engineered technologies. Inspired by the multiple functionalities of the ubiquitous lateral-line sensors of fishes, we developed flexible and surface-mountable arrays of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) artificial hair cell flow sensors. This paper reports the development of the MEMS artificial versions of superficial and canal neuromasts and experimental characterization of their unique flow-sensing roles. Our MEMS flow sensors feature a stereolithographically fabricated polymer hair cell mounted on Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3micro-diaphragm with floating bottom electrode. Canal-inspired versions are developed by mounting a polymer canal with pores that guide external flows to the hair cells embedded in the canal. Experimental results conducted employing our MEMS artificial superficial neuromasts (SNs) demonstrated a high sensitivity and very low threshold detection limit of 22 mV/(mm s−1) and 8.2 µm s−1, respectively, for an oscillating dipole stimulus vibrating at 35 Hz. Flexible arrays of such superficial sensors were demonstrated to localize an underwater dipole stimulus. Comparative experimental studies revealed a high-pass filtering nature of the canal encapsulated sensors with a cut-off frequency of 10 Hz and a flat frequency response of artificial SNs. Flexible arrays of self-powered, miniaturized, light-weight, low-cost and robust artificial lateral-line systems could enhance the capabilities of underwater vehicles.

Ashby, K, Eager, D, D'Elia, A & Day, L 2015, 'Influence of voluntary standards and design modifications on trampoline injury in Victoria, Australia', Injury Prevention, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 314-319.
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PurposeTo examine the influence of the voluntary Australian trampoline standard (AS 4989-2006) and market-driven design modifications on relevant trampoline injuries.MethodsTrend and intervention analysis on frequencies and proportions of hospital-treated trampoline-related injury in Victoria, Australia, extracted from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset from 1 July 1999 to 30 June 2013. The injuries relevant to theASwere contact with spring and frame, and multiple-user injury. Falls from trampolines were relevant for netted trampolines, a market-driven modification.ResultsFrequency of all trampoline injuries increased by 11.4% (95% CI 10.0% to 11.7%) on average each year. Spring and frame, and fall injuries increased to a lesser extent (8.7%, 95% CI 6.9% to 9.8% and 7.3%, 95% CI 5.8% to 8.3%, respectively). Multiple-user injuries increased by 21.0% (95% CI 16.3% to 21.9%). As a proportion of all trampoline injuries, spring and frame injury and falls injury decreased, while multiple-user injuries increased. The intervention analysis showed no significant change in spring and frame injuries associated with the AS (p=0.17). A significant increase was found for multiple-user injuries (p=0.01), in particular for the 0-year to 4-year age group (p<0.0001), post 2007.ConclusionsThere was little evidence for an effect of the voluntary standard on spring and frame injury and none for multiple-user injury. Netted trampolines appear to be associated with a decrease in falls from trampolines but an increase in injuries to multiple users. A mandated trampoline safety standard and a safety campaign including warnings about multiple users is recommended. Continued monitoring of in...

Ashby, K, Pointer, S, Eager, D & Day, L 2015, 'Australian trampoline injury patterns and trends', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 491-494.
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© 2015 Public Health Association of Australia. Objectives: To examine national trampoline injury patterns and trends in the context of improved product safety standards and trampoline design modifications. Method: Review of National Hospital Morbidity data. Results: There were an average 1,737 trampoline injuries reported nationally each year from 2002 to 2011. Both injury frequency and rate grew. Statistically significant rate increases were observed among all age groups, although both are highest among children aged 5-9 years. From 2008/09 there is a possible decreasing trend among the 5-9 age group. Falls predominate and 81% of falls result in fracture. Non-fall injuries increased annually as a proportion of all hospitalised injury although they did not comprise more than 2.4% in any one year. Conclusions: History provides no evidence of an observable effect of voluntary Australian Standards for trampoline safety on population rates for trampoline injury. The major design modification - netted enclosures - could contribute to the risk of injury by leading parents to falsely believe that a netted enclosure eradicates the risk of injury.

Ashraf, J, Chang, E, Hussain, OK & Hussain, FK 2015, 'Ontology usage analysis in the ontology lifecycle: A state-of-the-art review', KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS, vol. 80, pp. 34-47.
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Ashraf, J, Hussain, OK & Hussain, FK 2015, 'Making sense from Big RDF Data: OUSAF for measuring ontology usage', Software: Practice and Experience, vol. 45, no. 8, pp. 1051-1071.
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SummaryRecent growth and advancements in the Semantic Web have shifted the research focus from being knowledge‐centered to data‐centered. This has led to the increased use of ontologies to structurally represent the data, thereby generating huge amounts of RDF data, which we term Big RDF Data. Nevertheless, the literature lacks the tools to analyze Big RDF Data and make sense of it. Access to such tools would enable pragmatic inputs and insights for users in respect of such tasks as the usage and adoption of Ontologies, their uptake by different users in the community, and the identification of prevalent patterns. This analysis, which we term Ontology Usage, is important from the viewpoint of users who need informed inputs in the various stages of the ontology engineering lifecycle, such as ontology evolution, ontology population, and ontology deployment. In this paper, we propose the Ontology USage Analysis F̌ramework (OUSAF), which performs analysis of Ontology Usage on Big RDF Data and synthesizes the usage knowledge acquired. OUSAF provides a methodological approach to performing the various phases such as identifying, analyzing, representing, and utilizing the Ontology usage results from Big RDF Data. We describe in detail each of those phases and the metrics required to perform the analysis of each phase. The utilization of the OUSAF results obtained by users such as data publishers and ontology developers is demonstrated by a dataset collected in the e‐business domain. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Ashraful, AM, Masjuki, HH & Kalam, MA 2015, 'Particulate matter, carbon emissions and elemental compositions from a diesel engine exhaust fuelled with diesel–biodiesel blends', Atmospheric Environment, vol. 120, pp. 463-474.
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Aslani, F, Nejadi, S & Samali, B 2015, 'Instantaneous and time-dependent flexural cracking models of reinforced self-compacting concrete slabs with and without fibres', COMPUTERS AND CONCRETE, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 223-243.
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© 2015 Techno-Press, Ltd. Self-compacting concrete (SCC) can be placed and compacted under its own weight with little or no compaction. It is cohesive enough to be handled without segregation or bleeding. Modifications in the mix design of SCC may significantly influence the material's mechanical properties. Therefore, it is vital to investigate whether all the assumed hypotheses about conventional concrete (CC) are also valid for SCC structures. The aim in this paper is to develop analytical models for flexural cracking that describe in appropriate detail the observed cracking behaviour of the reinforced concrete flexural one way slabs tested. The crack width and crack spacing calculation procedures outlined in five international codes, namely Eurocode 2 (1991), CEB-FIP (1990), ACI318-99 (1999), Eurocode 2 (2004), and fib-Model Code (2010), are presented and crack widths and crack spacing are accordingly calculated. Then, the results are compared with the proposed analytical models and the measured experimental values, and discussed in detail.

Athukorala, R, Indraratna, B & Vinod, JS 2015, 'Disturbed State Concept-Based Constitutive Model for Lignosulfonate-Treated Silty Sand', International Journal of Geomechanics, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 04015002-04015002.
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Atif, A, Richards, D, Busch, P & Bilgin, A 2015, 'Assuring graduate competency: a technology acceptance model for course guide tools', Journal of Computing in Higher Education, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 94-113.
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Azad, AK, Rasul, MG, Mofijur, M, Bhuiya, MMK, Mondal, SK & Sattar, MK 2015, 'ENERGY AND WASTE MANAGEMENT FOR PETROLEUM REFINING EFFLUENTS: A CASE STUDY IN BANGLADESH', International Journal of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 2170-2187.
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© Universiti Malaysia Pahang. Transport fuel is one of the major concerns of the energy market. This fuel mainly comes from the processing of crude petroleum oil. The transport fuel processing industries, such as crude oil distillation plants, gas condensate fractionation plants, natural gas processing plants, etc., are one of the most energy- and emission-intensive sectors in the world. On the other hand, the handling and transportation of petroleum products like gasoline, kerosene, diesel, naphtha, octane and sprite, etc. also produce environmental pollution. This study reviewed energy and waste management by transport fuel processing industries in Bangladesh. Such industries are also known as petrochemical industries. They mainly produce gaseous pollutants such as process gas, waste gas, etc. and liquid pollutants such as produced water, waste oil and grease, etc. The gaseous pollutants are burnt in the flare system to save the environment. The liquid pollutants are more hazardous because of their higher salinity and corrosivity and higher amounts of grease. The literature on waste water management techniques, pollution abatement techniques and oil-water separator techniques is described. The waste water treatment techniques used in the case study industries are briefly discussed. Energy flows for both gaseous and liquid waste management are developed. Energy-saving and time frame measures which can be implemented are also outlined. The study found that the rational use of energy and proper environmental management are essential for achieving the energy and environmental sustainability of transport fuel process industries.

Azadeh, A, Asadzadeh, SM, Mirseraji, GH & Saberi, M 2015, 'An emotional learning-neuro-fuzzy inference approach for optimum training and forecasting of gas consumption estimation models with cognitive data', Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 91, pp. 47-63.
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Azadeh, A, Mianaei, HS, Asadzadeh, SM, Saberi, M & Sheikhalishahi, M 2015, 'A flexible ANN-GA-multivariate algorithm for assessment and optimization of machinery productivity in complex production units', Journal of Manufacturing Systems, vol. 35, pp. 46-75.
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Azadeh, A, Saberi, M, Rouzbahman, M & Valianpour, F 2015, 'A neuro-fuzzy algorithm for assessment of health, safety, environment and ergonomics in a large petrochemical plant', Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, vol. 34, pp. 100-114.
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Azadeh, A, Sohrabi, P & Saberi, M 2015, 'A unique meta-heuristic algorithm for optimization of electricity consumption in energy-intensive industries with stochastic inputs', The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 78, no. 9-12, pp. 1691-1703.
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Azadeh, A, Zia, NP, Saberi, M, Hussain, FK, Yoon, JH, Hussain, OK & Sadri, S 2015, 'A trust-based performance measurement modeling using t-norm and t-conorm operators', APPLIED SOFT COMPUTING, vol. 30, pp. 491-500.
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Azari, B, Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2015, 'Numerical analysis of vertical drains accelerated consolidation considering combined soil disturbance and visco-plastic behaviour', GEOMECHANICS AND ENGINEERING, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 187-220.
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© 2015 Techno-Press, Ltd. Soil disturbance induced by installation of mandrel driven vertical drains decreases the in situ horizontal hydraulic conductivity of the soil in the vicinity of the drains, decelerating the consolidation rate. According to available literature, several different profiles for the hydraulic conductivity variation with the radial distance from the vertical drain, influencing the excess pore water pressure dissipation rate, have been identified. In addition, it is well known that the visco-plastic properties of the soil also influence the excess pore water pressure dissipation rate and consequently the settlement rate. In this study, a numerical solution adopting an elastic visco-plastic model with nonlinear creep function incorporated in the consolidation equations has been developed to investigate the effects of disturbed zone properties on the time dependent behaviour of soft soil deposits improved with vertical drains and preloading. The employed elastic visco-plastic model is based on the framework of the modified Cam-Clay model capturing soil creep during excess pore water pressure dissipation. Besides, nonlinear variations of creep coefficient with stress and time and permeability variations during the consolidation process are considered. The predicted results have been compared with Väsby test fill measurements. According to the results, different variations of the hydraulic conductivity profile in the disturbed zone result in varying excess pore water pressure dissipation rate and consequently varying the effective vertical stresses in the soil profile. Thus, the creep coefficient and the creep strain limit are notably influenced resulting in significant changes in the predicted settlement rate.

Azim, MI, Hossain, MJ & Pota, HR 2015, 'Design of a Controller for Active Power Sharing in a Highly-Resistive Microgrid', IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 48, no. 30, pp. 288-293.
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Azzi, M, Duc, H & Ha, QP 2015, 'Toward sustainable energy usage in the power generation and construction sectors—a case study of Australia', Automation in Construction, vol. 59, pp. 122-127.
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Bailo, F 2015, 'Mapping online political talks through network analysis: a case study of the website of Italy's Five Star Movement', Policy Studies, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 550-572.
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Bakker, S, Hausen, D, van den Hoven, E & Selker, T 2015, 'Preface: Designing for peripheral interaction: Seamlessly integrating interactive technology in everyday life', Interaction Design and Architecture(s), vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 3-5.

Bakker, S, van den Hoven, E & Eggen, B 2015, 'Evaluating Peripheral Interaction Design', HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 473-506.
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Many actions in the physical world take place in the background or periphery of peoples attention. However interactions with computing technologies usually require focused attention. This paper explores the concept of peripheral interaction: physical interaction with technology that takes place outside the focus of attention. A peripheral interaction design (called FireFlies), which supports primary school teachers in their everyday routine through open-ended light-objects on the childrens desks, was deployed in four classrooms for six weeks. Results of interviews and video analysis indicate that the six participating teachers were able to physically interact with the FireFlies interactive artefact quickly and frequently without disturbing ongoing tasks. In the final weeks of the study, the teachers seemed able to easily shift their focus of attention between their main task and the interactive system. We therefore conclude that, even though it is difficult to measure peoples attention, a longitudinal approach seemed effective to find indicators for peripheral interaction.

Bakker, S, van den Hoven, E & Eggen, B 2015, 'Peripheral interaction: characteristics and considerations', PERSONAL AND UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 239-254.
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In everyday life, we are able to perceive information and perform physical actions in the background or periphery of attention. Inspired by this observation, several researchers have studied interactive systems that display digital information in the periphery of attention. To broaden the scope of this research direction, a few recent studies have focused on interactive systems that cannot only be perceived in the background, but also enable users to physically interact with digital information in their periphery. Such peripheral interaction designs can support computing technology to fluently embed in, and become a meaningful part of peoples everyday routines. With the increasing ubiquity of technology in our everyday environment, we believe that this direction is highly relevant nowadays. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of three case studies on peripheral interaction. These case studies involved the design and development of peripheral interactive systems and deployment of these systems in the real context of use for a number of weeks. Based on the insights gained through these case studies, we discuss generalized characteristics and considerations for peripheral interaction design and evaluation. The aim of the work presented in this paper is to support interaction design researchers and practitioners in anticipating and facilitating peripheral interaction with the designs they are evaluating or developing.

Ban, H, Uy, B, Pathirana, SW, Henderson, I, Mirza, O & Zhu, X 2015, 'Time-dependent behaviour of composite beams with blind bolts under sustained loads', Journal of Constructional Steel Research, vol. 112, pp. 196-207.
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The use of blind bolts in steel-concrete composite beams is beneficial for promoting sustainable design and for retrofitting existing steel structures. This paper presents an experimental study as well as finite element (FE) modelling analyses for the time-dependent behaviour of composite beams with blind bolts subjected to sustained loads. Four full-scale simply supported beams utilising different types of bolts and studs were tested under long-term static loads. The mid-span deflections were monitored for a period of over 260 days. Short-term push-out tests were also carried out on the connectors used in the composite beams, and their slip deformation was recorded for determining the initial stiffness. The experimental results were modelled by using a three-dimensional FE model, in which the creep of the concrete was simulated through defining a viscoelastic response and the shrinkage of concrete was incorporated by means of notional thermal expansion. The FE model was validated against the experimental results reported herein and other independent results of composite beams using conventional welded studs reported elsewhere, and it was subsequently applied to carry out parametric studies. An extensive body of parameters was considered to clarify their effects on the time-dependent behaviour of composite beams with blind bolts, including the mechanical properties and configuration details of shear connectors, the concrete strength, the loading conditions, the span-to-depth ratio and the reinforcement ratio. It was demonstrated that the time-dependent behaviour was sensitive to the stiffness and the bolt-to-hole clearance of connectors, and some other parameters also possessed effects with different degrees. The research findings implied that using blind bolts in composite beams was beneficial to the time-dependent response due to their relatively lower deflections resulting from the creep and shrinkage of the concrete over time. The outcome may provid...

Ban, L, Huo, H & Xu, B 2015, 'Discovery of hot regions about crowd activities based on mobility data', Journal of University of Science and Technology of China, vol. 45, no. 10, pp. 829-835.
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Mobility data records the change of location and time about crowd activities, showing semantic knowledge about human mobility. From the perspective of regional semantic knowledge, mining the hot regions visited frequently by moving crowds is essential to understand regional characteristics in the smart city applications. This paper studied how to discover hot regions and how to constraint their coverage size. Based on an analysis of the location sequence of moving crowd, a discovery method for discovering hot regions based on kernel function was proposed. This discovery method uses the grid as a spatial data indexing structure and the Top- & sorting method. A discovery algorithm of hot regions was presented based on the discovery method. Finally, experimental results validate accurately the feasibility and effectiveness of the method on practical datasets.

Ban, Y & Chen, X 2015, 'Counter-diabatic driving for fast spin control in a two-electron double quantum dot', Scientific Reports, vol. 4, no. 1.
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Banasiak, LJ, Indraratna, B, Lugg, G, Pathirage, U, McIntosh, G & Rendell, N 2015, 'Permeable reactive barrier rejuvenation by alkaline wastewater', Environmental Geotechnics, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 45-55.
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Chemical armouring of recycled concrete in a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) used for the neutralisation of acidic groundwater in acid sulfate soil terrain significantly decreases its acid neutralising capacity (ANC) by approximately 50% compared with its theoretical ANC. A long-term column test was conducted under simulated field groundwater conditions to assess the re-conditioning of armoured recycled concrete aggregates with alkaline wastewater, with the aim to restore and enhance the ANC and longevity of the PRB. The benefits of alkaline wastewater injection included sharp but short enhancement of the recycled concretes’ ANC, as indicated by an increase in effluent pH (pH 3 to 7·7) and alkalinity (0 to 21·6 mM CaCO3) and a reduction in oxidation reduction potential (ORP, 530 to 160–200 mV). While the results showed that the alkaline wastewater did not significantly reduce chemical armouring, it aided in the liberation of lodged mineral precipitates between concrete aggregates, reducing the severity of chemical and physical clogging. Batch tests demonstrated that, when exposed to acidic water, the ANC of recycled concrete pre-conditioned with alkaline wastewater was enhanced as indicated by higher pH, lower ORP and greater release of calcium (Ca2+) and alkalinity, compared to non-pre-conditioned concrete.

Bandyopadhyay, S, Cosentino, A, Johnston, N, Russo, V, Watrous, J & Yu, N 2015, 'Limitations on Separable Measurements by Convex Optimization', IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 61, no. 6, pp. 3593-3604.
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© 1963-2012 IEEE. We prove limitations on LOCC and separable measurements in bipartite state discrimination problems using techniques from convex optimization. Specific results that we prove include: an exact formula for the optimal probability of correctly discriminating any set of either three or four Bell states via LOCC or separable measurements when the parties are given an ancillary partially entangled pair of qubits; an easily checkable characterization of when an unextendable product set is perfectly discriminated by separable measurements, along with the first known example of an unextendable product set that cannot be perfectly discriminated by separable measurements; and an optimal bound on the success probability for any LOCC or separable measurement for the recently proposed state discrimination problem of Yu, Duan, and Ying.

Bano, M & Zowghi, D 2015, 'A systematic review on the relationship between user involvement and system success', INFORMATION AND SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 58, pp. 148-169.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Context: For more than four decades it has been intuitively accepted that user involvement (UI) during system development lifecycle leads to system success. However when the researchers have evaluated the user involvement and system success (UI-SS) relationship empirically, the results were not always positive. Objective: Our objective was to explore the UI-SS relationship by synthesizing the results of all the studies that have empirically investigated this complex phenomenon. Method: We performed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) following the steps provided in the guidelines of Evidence Based Software Engineering. From the resulting studies we extracted data to answer our 9 research questions related to the UI-SS relationship, identification of users, perspectives of UI, benefits, problems and challenges of UI, degree and level of UI, relevance of stages of software development lifecycle (SDLC) and the research method employed on the UI-SS relationship. Results: Our systematic review resulted in selecting 87 empirical studies published during the period 1980-2012. Among 87 studies reviewed, 52 reported that UI positively contributes to system success, 12 suggested a negative contribution and 23 were uncertain. The UI-SS relationship is neither direct nor binary, and there are various confounding factors that play their role. The identification of users, their degree/level of involvement, stage of SDLC for UI, and choice of research method have been claimed to have impact on the UI-SS relationship. However, there is not sufficient empirical evidence available to support these claims. Conclusion: Our results have revealed that UI does contribute positively to system success. But it is a double edged sword and if not managed carefully it may cause more problems than benefits. Based on the analysis of 87 studies, we were able to identify factors for effective management of UI alluding to the causes for inconsi...

Barnhill, E, Kennedy, P, Johnson, CL, Mada, M & Roberts, N 2015, 'Real‐time 4D phase unwrapping applied to magnetic resonance elastography', Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, vol. 73, no. 6, pp. 2321-2331.
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PurposePhase amplitude is a source of signal in magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) experiments but its exploitation in experimental design has been limited due to the challenges of phase wrap. This study addressed this aspect of MRE through new developments in algorithms, heuristic strategy, and user interface.MethodsA test dataset with systematic variation of three parameters—nested wrap, gradient, and noise level—was developed to choose phase‐unwrapping algorithms and to analyze their performance. A new application, PhaseTools, was developed that implemented three phase‐unwrapping algorithms that adhere to a “real‐time” criterion of less than 3 min for a four‐dimensional MRE acquisition. Two of the algorithms extend previously published algorithms and one was newly developed. The algorithms were then applied to five datasets from MRE, two typical cases and three edge cases that were particularly challenging in one of the three parameters.ResultsThe performance of the PhaseTools algorithms on the test dataset was comparable to two widely cited algorithms that take hours or days to complete. Guidelines for the optimal use of each algorithm are established.ConclusionPhaseTools enables the substantial increase of signal‐to‐noise in MRE experiments at negligible additional computational cost. PhaseTools is freely released with this study, making robust real‐time phase unwrapping available to any group using phase‐based imaging. Magn Reson Med 73:2321–2331, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Barthelmey, A, Lemmerz, K, Lenkenhoff, K, Brambach, T, Nuding, W, Deuse, J & Kuhlenkötter, B 2015, 'Digital representation in automationML - Automatic creation and provision of technical documentation', WT Werkstattstechnik, vol. 105, no. 11-12, pp. 843-848.
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This paper presents an approach to link technical documentation with design data of machinery and plants using the data exchange format AutomationML. Primarily scheduled for the exchange of design data the format will be expanded by documentation features and aspects. Due to the combination of documentation and design data an up to date virtual image of a cyber-physical production system is accomplished. This is an important partial step towards intelligent creation and usage of technical documentation.

Bastidas-Arteaga, E & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Damage risks and economic assessment of climate adaptation strategies for design of new concrete structures subject to chloride-induced corrosion', Structural Safety, vol. 52, no. PA, pp. 40-53.
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Reinforced concrete (RC) structures are subject to environmental actions affecting their performance, serviceability and safety. Among these actions, chloride ingress leads to corrosion initiation and its interaction with service loading could reduce its operational life. Experimental evidence indicates that chloride ingress is highly influenced by weather conditions in the surrounding environment and therefore by climate change. Consequently, both structural design and maintenance should be adapted to these new environmental conditions. This work focuses on the assessment of the costs and benefits of two climate adaptation strategies for new RC structures placed in chloride-contaminated environments under various climate change scenarios. Their cost-effectiveness is measured in terms of the benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) and the probability that BCR exceeds unity - i.e., Pr(BCR. > 1). It was found that increasing concrete strength grade is more cost-effective than increasing design cover. The results also indicate that the cost-effectiveness of a given adaptation strategy depends mainly on the type of structural component, exposure conditions and climate change scenarios.

Bautista, MG, Dutkiewicz, E & Heimlich, M 2015, 'Subthreshold Energy Harvesters Circuits for Biomedical Implants Applications', Proceedings of the 10th EAI International Conference on Body Area Networks, vol. 16, no. 9, pp. 1-5.
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This paper reviews the state-of-art of the subthreshold level design energy harvesters for powering biomedical implants. Power consumption and lifespan are crucial requirements for the electronic circuitry of implantable systems. In order to meet these challenging requirements, a design for an energy harvester that operates in a subthreshold level offers a promising solution.

Beckers, A, Van Peer, G, Carter, DR, Gartlgruber, M, Herrmann, C, Agarwal, S, Helsmoortel, HH, Althoff, K, Molenaar, JJ, Cheung, BB, Schulte, JH, Benoit, Y, Shohet, JM, Westermann, F, Marshall, GM, Vandesompele, J, De Preter, K & Speleman, F 2015, 'MYCN-driven regulatory mechanisms controlling LIN28B in neuroblastoma', Cancer Letters, vol. 366, no. 1, pp. 123-132.
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Beckers, A, Van Peer, G, Carter, DR, Mets, E, Althoff, K, Cheung, BB, Schulte, JH, Mestdagh, P, Vandesompele, J, Marshall, GM, De Preter, K & Speleman, F 2015, 'MYCN-targeting miRNAs are predominantly downregulated during MYCN-driven neuroblastoma tumor formation', Oncotarget, vol. 6, no. 7, pp. 5204-5216.
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Behbood, V, Lu, J, Zhang, G & Pedrycz, W 2015, 'Multistep Fuzzy Bridged Refinement Domain Adaptation Algorithm and Its Application to Bank Failure Prediction', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 1917-1935.
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© 2015 IEEE. Machine learning plays an important role in data classification and data-based prediction. In some real-world applications, however, the training data (coming from the source domain) and test data (from the target domain) come from different domains or time periods, and this may result in the different distributions of some features. Moreover, the values of the features and/or labels of the datasets might be nonnumeric and involve vague values. Traditional learning-based prediction and classification methods cannot handle these two issues. In this study, we propose a multistep fuzzy bridged refinement domain adaptation algorithm, which offers an effective way to deal with both issues. It utilizes a concept of similarity to modify the labels of the target instances that were initially predicted by a shift-unaware model. It then refines the labels using instances that are most similar to a given target instance. These instances are extracted from mixture domains composed of source and target domains. The proposed algorithm is built on a basis of some data and refines the labels, thus performing completely independently of the shift-unaware prediction model. The algorithm uses a fuzzy set-based approach to deal with the vague values of the features and labels. Four different datasets are used in the experiments to validate the proposed algorithm. The results, which are compared with those generated by the existing domain adaptation methods, demonstrate a significant improvement in prediction accuracy in both the above-mentioned datasets.

Belhaj, D, Baccar, R, Jaabiri, I, Bouzid, J, Kallel, M, Ayadi, H & Zhou, JL 2015, 'Fate of selected estrogenic hormones in an urban sewage treatment plant in Tunisia (North Africa)', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 505, pp. 154-160.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Estrogenic compounds have been monitored for one year at an urban sewage treatment plant (STP) located in Tunisia, to evaluate their fate and seasonal variations. The concentrations of these compounds were determined in both wastewater and sludge phases by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results showed that the highest removal of all estrogens (≥. 80%) was observed in summer. Mass balance analysis revealed that biodegradation was the predominant removal mechanism. Moreover, the results showed that the removal efficiency of the studied emerging micropollutants and their concentrations in the solid phase of return sludge were much higher in winter and spring than in summer and autumn. These findings were closely related to microbial activity and the concentration of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSSs). Finally, the findings can be used to help with the modifications that could be implemented in that STP for the improved removal of estrogenic contaminants.

Bennett, NS, Byrne, D & Cowley, A 2015, 'Enhanced Seebeck coefficient in silicon nanowires containing dislocations', Applied Physics Letters, vol. 107, no. 1, pp. 013903-013903.
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In recent years, research on thermoelectric (TE) materials has intensified—thanks to the exciting potential of low-dimensional structures such as nanowires. Experiments have shown that nano-structuring materials can greatly reduce their thermal transport properties, significantly enhancing thermoelectric performance. With reduced thermal conductivity, nano-structured silicon—which is plentiful and low-cost—becomes a competitive TE material, but still trails traditional TE materials in overall performance. In this study, we show that the creation of extended defects within the crystal structure of silicon nanowires can create an additional enhancement. Relative to regular silicon nanowires, extended defects lead to an increased Seebeck coefficient. The effect is a consequence of the creation of dislocations and dislocation-loops, intentionally introduced in the nanowires. These defects create nano-scale potential barriers which theoretical studies have predicted can enhance silicon's thermopower by energy filtering of low-energy carriers. Although the defects slightly reduce carrier mobility—increasing electrical resistivity in the nanowires—their presence creates an overall two-fold enhancement in the thermoelectric power factor.

Bennett, NS, Wight, NM, Popuri, SR & Bos, J-WG 2015, 'Efficient thermoelectric performance in silicon nano-films by vacancy-engineering', Nano Energy, vol. 16, pp. 350-356.
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Berta, M & Tomamichel, M 2015, 'The Fidelity of Recovery is Multiplicative', IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 1758-1763.
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Fawzi and Renner [Commun. Math. Phys. 340(2):575, 2015] recently establisheda lower bound on the conditional quantum mutual information (CQMI) oftripartite quantum states $ABC$ in terms of the fidelity of recovery (FoR),i.e. the maximal fidelity of the state $ABC$ with a state reconstructed fromits marginal $BC$ by acting only on the $C$ system. The FoR measures quantumcorrelations by the local recoverability of global states and has manyproperties similar to the CQMI. Here we generalize the FoR and show that theresulting measure is multiplicative by utilizing semi-definite programmingduality. This allows us to simplify an operational proof by Brandao et al.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115(5):050501, 2015] of the above-mentioned lower bound thatis based on quantum state redistribution. In particular, in contrast to theprevious approaches, our proof does not rely on de Finetti reductions.

Berta, M, Fawzi, O & Tomamichel, M 2015, 'On Variational Expressions for Quantum Relative Entropies', Letters in Mathematical Physics, vol. 107, no. 12, pp. 2239-2265.
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Distance measures between quantum states like the trace distance and thefidelity can naturally be defined by optimizing a classical distance measureover all measurement statistics that can be obtained from the respectivequantum states. In contrast, Petz showed that the measured relative entropy,defined as a maximization of the Kullback-Leibler divergence over projectivemeasurement statistics, is strictly smaller than Umegaki's quantum relativeentropy whenever the states do not commute. We extend this result in two ways.First, we show that Petz' conclusion remains true if we allow general positiveoperator valued measures. Second, we extend the result to Renyi relativeentropies and show that for non-commuting states the sandwiched Renyi relativeentropy is strictly larger than the measured Renyi relative entropy for $\alpha\in (\frac12, \infty)$, and strictly smaller for $\alpha \in [0,\frac12)$. Thelatter statement provides counterexamples for the data-processing inequality ofthe sandwiched Renyi relative entropy for $\alpha < \frac12$. Our main tool isa new variational expression for the measured Renyi relative entropy, which wefurther exploit to show that certain lower bounds on quantum conditional mutualinformation are superadditive.

Bhuiya, MMK, Rasul, MG, Khan, MMK, Ashwath, N, Azad, AK & Mofijur, M 2015, 'Optimisation of Oil Extraction Process from Australian Native Beauty Leaf Seed (Calophyllum Inophyllum)', Energy Procedia, vol. 75, pp. 56-61.
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Biabani, MM & Indraratna, B 2015, 'An evaluation of the interface behaviour of rail subballast stabilised with geogrids and geomembranes', Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 240-249.
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Blamires, SJ, Liao, C-P, Chang, C-K, Chuang, Y-C, Wu, C-L, Blackledge, TA, Sheu, H-S & Tso, I-M 2015, 'Mechanical Performance of Spider Silk Is Robust to Nutrient-Mediated Changes in Protein Composition', Biomacromolecules, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 1218-1225.
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Blamires, SJ, Piorkowski, D, Chuang, A, Tseng, Y-H, Toft, S & Tso, I-M 2015, 'Can differential nutrient extraction explain property variations in a predatory trap?', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 140479-140479.
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Predators exhibit flexible foraging to facilitate taking prey that offer important nutrients. Because trap-building predators have limited control over the prey they encounter, differential nutrient extraction and trap architectural flexibility may be used as a means of prey selection. Here, we tested whether differential nutrient extraction induces flexibility in architecture and stickiness of a spider's web by feeding Nephila pilipes live crickets (CC), live flies (FF), dead crickets with the web stimulated by flies (CD) or dead flies with the web stimulated by crickets (FD). Spiders in the CD group consumed less protein per mass of lipid or carbohydrate, and spiders in the FF group consumed less carbohydrates per mass of protein. Spiders from the CD group built stickier webs that used less silk, whereas spiders in the FF group built webs with more radii, greater catching areas and more silk, compared with other treatments. Our results suggest that differential nutrient extraction is a likely explanation for prey-induced spider web architecture and stickiness variations.

Bliuc, D, Alarkawi, D, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2015, 'Risk of Subsequent Fractures and Mortality in Elderly Women and Men with Fragility Fractures with and without Osteoporotic Bone Density: The Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 637-646.
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ABSTRACT   Half of fragility fractures occur in individuals with nonosteoporotic BMD (BMD T-score &gt; –2.5); however, there is no information on postfracture adverse events of subsequent fracture and mortality for different BMD levels. The objective of this work was to determine the risk and predictors of subsequent fracture and excess mortality following initial fracture according to BMD. The subjects were community-dwelling participants aged 60+ years from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study with incident fractures followed from 1989 to 2011. The outcome measurements were as follows: risk of subsequent fracture and mortality according to BMD categorized as normal (T-score &lt; –1), osteopenia (T-score ≤ –1 and &gt; –2.5), and osteoporosis (T-score ≤ –2.5). There were 528 low-trauma fractures in women and 187 in men. Of these, 12% occurred in individuals with normal BMD (38 women, 50 men) and 42% in individuals with osteopenia (221 women, 76 men). The relative risk (RR) of subsequent fracture was &gt;2.0-fold for all levels of BMD (normal BMD: 2.0 [1.2 to 3.3] for women and 2.1 [1.2 to 3.8] for men; osteopenia: 2.1 [1.7 to 2.6] for women and 2.5 [1.6 to 4.1] for men; and osteoporosis 3.2 [2.7 to 3.9] for women and 2.1 [1.4 to 3.1] for men. The likelihood of falling and reduced quadriceps strength contributed to subsequent fracture risk in women with normal BMD. By contrast with subsequent fracture risk, postfracture mortality was increased particularly in individuals with low BMD (age-adjusted standardized mortality ratio [SMR] for osteopenia 1.3 [1.1 to 1.7] and 2.2 [1.7 to 2.9] for women and men, respectively, and osteoporosis 1.7 [1.5 to 2.0] and 2.7 [2.0 to 3.6] for women and men, respectively). This study demonstrates the high burden of subsequent fracture in individuals with normal BMD and osteopenia, and ...

Bliuc, D, Nguyen, ND, Alarkawi, D, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2015, 'Accelerated bone loss and increased post-fracture mortality in elderly women and men', Osteoporosis International, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1331-1339.
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Bonilla, CA, Merigó, JM & Torres-Abad, C 2015, 'Economics in Latin America: a bibliometric analysis', Scientometrics, vol. 105, no. 2, pp. 1239-1252.
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Bibliometrics is a research field that studies quantitatively the bibliographic material. This study analyzes the academic research developed in Latin America in economics between 1994 and 2013. The article uses the Web of Science database in order to collect the information and provides several bibliometric indicators including the total number of publications and citations, and the h-index. The results indicate that Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Colombia are the only countries with a significant amount of publications in economics in Web of Science although Costa Rica and Uruguay have considerable results in per capita terms. The annual evolution shows a significant increase during the last 5 years that seems to continue in the future, probably with the objective of reaching similar standards than the most competitive countries around the World. The results also show that development, agricultural and health economics are the most significant topics in the region.

Boostani, AF, Mousavian, RT, Tahamtan, S, Yazdani, S, Khosroshahi, RA, Wei, D, Xu, JZ, Gong, D, Zhang, XM & Jiang, ZY 2015, 'Graphene sheets encapsulating SiC nanoparticles: A roadmap towards enhancing tensile ductility of metal matrix composites', Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 648, pp. 92-103.
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Bowers, ML, Gao, Y, Yang, L, Gaydosh, DJ, De Graef, M, Noebe, RD, Wang, Y & Mills, MJ 2015, 'Austenite grain refinement during load-biased thermal cycling of a Ni49.9Ti50.1 shape memory alloy', Acta Materialia, vol. 91, pp. 318-329.
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Bu, GP, Chanda, S, Guan, H, Jo, J, Blumenstein, M & Loo, YC 2015, 'Crack detection using a texture analysis-based technique for visual bridge inspection', Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 41-48.
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Bridge inspection is a pathway to bridge condition rating assessment, and is an essential element of any bridge management system (BMS). The success of a BMS is highly dependent on the quality of bridge inspection outcomes and accurate estimation of future bridge condition ratings. However, existing visual bridge inspection methods suffer several limitations due to human subjective judgment. In order to minimise such limitations, a feasibility study has been performed to enhance the current visual inspection method using optical image processing techniques. However, the accuracy of the inspection outcomes still requires further improvement. This paper proposes an automatic bridge inspection approach employing wavelet-based image features along with support vector machines (SVM) for automatic detection of cracks in bridge images. A two-stage approach is followed, in the first stage, a decision is made as whether an image should undergo a pre-processing step (depending on image characteristics); in the second stage, wavelet features are extracted from the image using a sliding window texture analysis-based technique. Consequently, an average accuracy of 92% (effect of training image types on accuracy) is obtained even when undertaking experiments with noisy and complex bridge images.

Bu, GP, Lee, JH, Guan, H, Loo, YC & Blumenstein, M 2015, 'Prediction of Long-Term Bridge Performance: Integrated Deterioration Approach with Case Studies', Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 04014089-04014089.
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Bui, DT, Pradhan, B, Revhaug, I, Nguyen, DB, Pham, HV & Bui, QN 2015, 'A novel hybrid evidential belief function-based fuzzy logic model in spatial prediction of rainfall-induced shallow landslides in the Lang Son city area (Vietnam)', Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 243-271.
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Burdon, S & Dovey, KA 2015, 'Exploring the cultural basis of innovation', Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 20-34.
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The paper explores the relationship between leadership, culture and innovation. Through an analysis of four enterprises, voted by their peers as having strong innovation-friendly cultures, we explicate the assumptions embedded in these innovation-supporting cultures, and outline the leadership practices that have created them. By locating the study within the interpretivist research paradigm and adopting the 'practice turn' perspective that has characterised recent leadership research, this study has been able to acknowledge and address the political dynamics involved in the creation of innovation-conducive cultures.

Burdon, S, Mooney, GR & Al-Kilidar, H 2015, 'Navigating service sector innovation using co-creation partnerships', JOURNAL OF SERVICE THEORY AND PRACTICE, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 285-303.
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©Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse a series of engineering services partnerships to better understand requisites needed in building high value co-creation alliances – especially where innovation is the strategic goal. Design/methodology/approach – Using a combination of quantitative surveys, qualitative “deep-dive” assessments and a small number of in-situ mini-case investigations this research sets out to analyse 99 joint-venture innovation partnerships. These ventures represent a variety of asymmetric and symmetric alliances within the engineering services sector. Particular emphasis is given to those where the prerequisites for co-creative innovation are either in place or could be built. Findings – Partnering and progressing innovative ideas are important behaviours for organisations seeking higher levels of commercial success and competitive advantage. Navigating the partnering dynamic can also be harder than expected, potentially hindered by misunderstandings and differing expectations between enterprises. Particularly for symmetric endeavours, success often hinges upon not only having clarity in the degree of innovation sought but also alignment as to the depth and stage of the partnering dynamic itself. However, when such collaboration works customer satisfaction and associated contract retention can increase significantly. Originality/value – Most inter-company innovation projects historically seem to occur where one firm is significantly larger than the other. In contrast, this study highlights issues encountered when innovation co-creation projects are undertaken by a mature (as opposed to maturing) organisation in collaboration with partners where the power balance is similar between the two enterprises. In such cases, customer satisfaction surveys can be useful tools for objectively navigating the innovation co-creation experience.

Burton, GJ, Pineda, JA, Sheng, D & Airey, D 2015, 'Microstructural changes of an undisturbed, reconstituted and compacted high plasticity clay subjected to wetting and drying', Engineering Geology, vol. 193, pp. 363-373.
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Cagno, E, Ramirez-Portilla, A & Trianni, A 2015, 'Linking energy efficiency and innovation practices: Empirical evidence from the foundry sector', Energy Policy, vol. 83, pp. 240-256.
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Cagno, E, Trianni, A, Abeelen, C, Worrell, E & Miggiano, F 2015, 'Barriers and drivers for energy efficiency: Different perspectives from an exploratory study in the Netherlands', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 102, pp. 26-38.
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Cai, Q, Turner, BD, Sheng, D & Sloan, S 2015, 'The kinetics of fluoride sorption by zeolite: Effects of cadmium, barium and manganese', Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, vol. 177-178, pp. 136-147.
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Callear, SK, Johnston, A, McLain, SE & Imberti, S 2015, 'Conformation and interactions of dopamine hydrochloride in solution', The Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 142, no. 1.
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The aqueous solution of dopamine hydrochloride has been investigated using neutron and X-ray total scattering data together with Monte-Carlo based modelling using Empirical Potential Structure Refinement. The conformation of the protonated dopamine molecule is presented and the results compared to the conformations found in crystal structures, dopamine-complexed protein crystal structures and predicted from theoretical calculations and pharmacophoric models. It is found that protonated dopamine adopts a range of conformations in solution, highlighting the low rotational energy barrier between different conformations, with the preferred conformation being trans-perpendicular. The interactions between each of the species present (protonated dopamine molecules, water molecules, and chloride anions) have been determined and are discussed with reference to interactions observed in similar systems both in the liquid and crystalline state, and predicted from theoretical calculations. The expected strong hydrogen bonds between the strong hydrogen bond donors and acceptors are observed, together with evidence of weaker CH hydrogen bonds and π interactions also playing a significant role in determining the arrangement of adjacent molecules.

Can Wang, Longbing Cao & Chi-Hung Chi 2015, 'Formalization and Verification of Group Behavior Interactions', IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. 45, no. 8, pp. 1109-1124.
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Cao, L, Yu, PS & Kumar, V 2015, 'Nonoccurring Behavior Analytics: A New Area', IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 4-11.
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Cao, W & Cao, L 2015, 'Financial Crisis Forecasting via Coupled Market State Analysis', IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 18-25.
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Carter, DR, Murray, J, Cheung, BB, Gamble, L, Koach, J, Tsang, J, Sutton, S, Kalla, H, Syed, S, Gifford, AJ, Issaeva, N, Biktasova, A, Atmadibrata, B, Sun, Y, Sokolowski, N, Ling, D, Kim, PY, Webber, H, Clark, A, Ruhle, M, Liu, B, Oberthuer, A, Fischer, M, Byrne, J, Saletta, F, Thwe, LM, Purmal, A, Haderski, G, Burkhart, C, Speleman, F, De Preter, K, Beckers, A, Ziegler, DS, Liu, T, Gurova, KV, Gudkov, AV, Norris, MD, Haber, M & Marshall, GM 2015, 'Therapeutic targeting of the MYC signal by inhibition of histone chaperone FACT in neuroblastoma', Science Translational Medicine, vol. 7, no. 312.
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Histone chaperone FACT acts in a positive feedback loop with MYCN and is a therapeutic target in neuroblastoma.

Casanovas, M, Torres-Martinez, A & Merigo, JM 2015, 'DECISION MAKING PROCESSES OF NON-LIFE INSURANCE PRICING USING FUZZY LOGIC AND OWA OPERATORS', ECONOMIC COMPUTATION AND ECONOMIC CYBERNETICS STUDIES AND RESEARCH, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 169-187.

Casanovas, M, Torres-Martínez, A & Merigó, JM 2015, 'Decision making processes of non-life insurance pricing using fuzzy logic and OWA operators', Economic Computation and Economic Cybernetics Studies and Research, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 1-19.
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Setting a commercial premium for an insurance policy is a complex process, even, though statistical tools provide fairly reliable information on the behavior of the frequency and cost of claims differentiated by risk profiles reflected in pure premium calculations. However lately setting the price the customer must pay has not been easy, because of the uncertainty of, having to use subjective criteria to analyze how demand may be affected by different price alternatives and economic situations. This article aims to develop this process in two stages. The first stage is carried out with the opinion of experts applied to uncertain numbers and Ordered Weighted Average (OWA) operators to assess the overall benefits of each profile to choose the best alternative. The second stage, which uses Heavy OWA (HOWA) operators, is based on the results obtained in the first stage and chooses a general price alternative for all profiles.

Cassidy, MJ, Kim, K, Ni, W & Gu, W 2015, 'A problem of limited-access special lanes. Part I: Spatiotemporal studies of real freeway traffic', Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, vol. 80, pp. 307-319.
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Cassidy, MJ, Kim, K, Ni, W & Gu, W 2015, 'A problem of limited-access special lanes. Part II: Exploring remedies via simulation', Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, vol. 80, pp. 320-329.
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Castel, A & Foster, SJ 2015, 'Bond strength between blended slag and Class F fly ash geopolymer concrete with steel reinforcement', Cement and Concrete Research, vol. 72, pp. 48-53.
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Castel, A & Nasser, A 2015, 'Influence of pre‐existing oxides layer and interface condition with carbonated concrete on active reinforcing steel corrosion', Materials and Corrosion, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 206-214.
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This work focuses on carbonation‐induced corrosion in concrete. This paper presents specific experiments which were developed in order to assess the influence of both pre‐existing oxides layer at the surface of the steel bars and steel–concrete interface condition on active corrosion. Two types of active corrosion are studied: Microcell corrosion and galvanic corrosion. Results show that pre‐existing oxide layer contributes to reduce both galvanic and microcell corrosion. Steel–concrete interface defect leads to a strong increase in galvanic corrosion but does not affect significantly microcell corrosion in carbonated concrete. The quantity of pre‐existing oxides is highly scattered and these scatters can be superior to the mass of new oxides formed during relatively short‐term corrosion tests in natural condition which makes mass loss analysis very difficult.

Castel, A, Gilbert, RI & Ranzi, G 2015, 'Closure to “Instantaneous Stiffness of Cracked Reinforced Concrete Including Steel-Concrete Interface Damage and Long-Term Effects” by Arnaud Castel, Raymond Ian Gilbert, and Gianluca Ranzi', Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 141, no. 6, pp. 07015006-07015006.
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Castel, A, Khan, I & Gilbert, RI 2015, 'Development length in reinforced concrete structures exposed to steel corrosion: A correction factor for AS3600 provisions', Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 89-98.
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© Institution of Engineers Australia, 2015. In reinforced concrete structures, reinforcement corrosion induces concrete cracking and leads to a reduction in both the steel cross-section and the steel-concrete bond strength and ultimately affects the development length. In this paper, a new correction factor is proposed to calculate the development length of reinforced concrete structures prone to corrosion. A scalar bond damage parameter is introduced to relate bond strength reduction to corrosion. The new model agrees well with all experimental results found in the literature. The bond damage parameter is further used as a correction factor modifying the AS3600 provisions for the development length of reinforcement in reinforced concrete structures located in a saline environment. The relationship between steel-concrete bond damage and corrosion induced concrete cracking is also discussed.

Chae, S-R, Noeiaghaei, T, Jang, H-C, Sahebi, S, Jassby, D, Shon, H-K, Park, P-K, Kim, J-O & Park, J-S 2015, 'Effects of natural organic matter on separation of the hydroxylated fullerene nanoparticles by cross-flow ultrafiltration membranes from water', SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 140, pp. 61-68.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Transport, reactivity, and microbial toxicity of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are significantly influenced by the size and surface charge of the nanoparticle aggregates in the environmental media in which they are contained. To remove or separate the colloidal aggregates of ENMs from the aquatic environment, it is important to understand fate and transport of ENMs, and their interaction with other environmental components. Here, we explore the effects of natural organic matter (NOM) and NaCl concentrations on the removal efficiency of hydroxylated fullerene (fullerol) nanoparticle aggregates, nC60(OH)24 by cross-flow ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. We demonstrate that the removal efficiency of nC60(OH)24 (185 nm) by the UF membrane (nominal pore size = 30 nm) was limited at approximately 30%. As NaCl concentration increased from 0 to 1.5 M NaCl, the size of nC 60(OH)24 increased from 185 nm to 1405 nm but the maximum removal efficiency remained below 60%. The presence of NOM increased the stability of nC60(OH)24 and deteriorated the retention of nC60(OH)24 by the UF membranes. The more hydrophilic NOM (i.e., fulvic acid) resulted in lower separation efficiency of nC60(OH)24 by the UF membrane than the less hydrophilic NOM (i.e., humic acid).

Chakraborty, C, Ho-Ching Iu, H & Dah-Chuan Lu, D 2015, 'Power converters, control, and energy management for distributed generation', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 7, pp. 4466-4470.
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Chakraborty, S, Mengersen, K, Fidge, C, Ma, L & Lassen, D 2015, 'Multifaceted Modelling of Complex Business Enterprises', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. e0134052-e0134052.
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Chakravadhanula, M, Hampton, CN, Chodavadia, P, Ozols, V, Zhou, L, Catchpoole, D, Xu, J, Erdreich-Epstein, A & Bhardwaj, RD 2015, 'Wnt pathway in atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors', Neuro-Oncology, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 526-535.
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© The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Neuro-Oncology. All rights reserved. Background: Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT) is an aggressive pediatric brain tumor with limited therapeutic options. The hypothesis for this study was that the Wnt pathway triggered by the Wnt5B ligand plays an important role in ATRT biology. To address this hypothesis, the role of WNT5B and other Wnt pathway genes was analyzed in ATRT tissues and ATRT primary cell lines. Methods: Transcriptome-sequencing analyses were performed using nanoString platforms, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR, immunoprecipitation, short interference RNA studies, cell viability studies, and drug dose response (DDR) assays. Results: Our transcriptome-sequencing results of Wnt pathway genes from ATRT tissues and cell lines indicated that the WNT5B gene is significantly upregulated in ATRT samples compared with nontumor brain samples. These results also indicated a differential expression of both canonical and noncanonical Wnt genes. Imunoprecipitation studies indicated that Wnt5B binds to Frizzled1 and Ryk receptors. Inhibition of WNT5B by short interference RNA decreased the expression of FRIZZLED1 and RYK. Cell viability studies a indicated significant decrease in cell viability by inhibiting Frizzled1 receptor. DDR assays showed promising results with some inhibitors. Conclusions: These promising therapeutic options will be studied further before starting a translational clinical trial. The success of these options will improve care for these patients.

Chamoli, U, Korkusuz, MH, Sabnis, AB, Manolescu, AR, Tsafnat, N & Diwan, AD 2015, 'Global and segmental kinematic changes following sequential resection of posterior osteoligamentous structures in the lumbar spine: An in vitro biomechanical investigation using pure moment testing protocols', Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine, vol. 229, no. 11, pp. 812-821.
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Lumbar spinal surgeries may compromise the integrity of posterior osteoligamentous structures implicating mechanical stability. Circumstances necessitating a concomitant surgery to achieve restabilisation are not well understood. The main objective of this in vitro study was to quantify global and segmental (index and adjacent levels) kinematic changes in the lumbar spine following sequential resection of the posterior osteoligamentous structures using pure moment testing protocols. Six fresh frozen cadaveric kangaroo lumbar spines (T12–S1) were tested under a bending moment in flexion–extension, bilateral bending, and axial torsion in a 6-degree-of-freedom Kinematic Spine Simulator. Specimens were tested in the following order: intact state (D0), after interspinous and supraspinous ligaments transection between L4 and L5 (D1), further after a total bilateral facetectomy between L4 and L5 (D2). Segmental motions at the cephalad, damaged, and caudal levels were recorded using an infrared-based motion tracking device. Following D1, no significant change in the global range of motion was observed in any of the bending planes. Following D2, a significant increase in the global range of motion from the baseline (D0) was observed in axial torsion (median normalised change +20%). At the damaged level, D2resulted in a significant increase in the segmental range of motion in flexion–extension (+77%) and axial torsion (+492%). Additionally, a significant decrease in the segmental range of motion in axial torsion (−35%) was observed at the caudal level following D2. These results suggest that a multi-segment lumbar spine acts as a mechanism for transmitting motions, and that a compromised joint may significantly alter motion transfer to adjacent segments. We conclude that the interspinous an...

Chan, B, Guan, H, Jo, J & Blumenstein, M 2015, 'Towards UAV-based bridge inspection systems: a review and an application perspective', Structural Monitoring and Maintenance, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 283-300.
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© 2015 Techno-Press, Ltd. Visual condition inspections remain paramount to assessing the current deterioration status of a bridge and assigning remediation or maintenance tasks so as to ensure the ongoing serviceability of the structure. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing backlog of maintenance activities. Existing research reveals that this is attributable to the labour-intensive, subjective and disruptive nature of the current bridge inspection method. Current processes ultimately require lane closures, traffic guidance schemes and inspection equipment. This not only increases the whole-of-life costs of the bridge, but also increases the risk to the travelling public as issues affecting the structural integrity may go unaddressed. As a tool for bridge condition inspections, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or, drones, offer considerable potential, allowing a bridge to be visually assessed without the need for inspectors to walk across the deck or utilise under-bridge inspection units. With current inspection processes placing additional strain on the existing bridge maintenance resources, the technology has the potential to significantly reduce the overall inspection costs and disruption caused to the travelling public. In addition to this, the use of automated aerial image capture enables engineers to better understand a situation through the 3D spatial context offered by UAV systems. However, the use of UAV for bridge inspection involves a number of critical issues to be resolved, including stability and accuracy of control, and safety to people. SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) is a technique that could be used by a UAV to build a map of the bridge underneath, while simultaneously determining its location on the constructed map. While there are considerable economic and risk-related benefits created through introducing entirely new ways of inspecting bridges and visualising information, there also remain hindrances to...

Chan, KY, Lam, HK, Dillon, TS & Ling, SH 2015, 'A Stepwise-Based Fuzzy Regression Procedure for Developing Customer Preference Models in New Product Development', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 1728-1745.
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© 2014 IEEE. Fuzzy regression methods have commonly been used to develop consumer preferences models, which correlate the engineering characteristics with consumer preferences regarding a new product; the consumer preference models provide a platform, whereby product developers can decide the engineering characteristics in order to satisfy consumer preferences prior to developing the products. Recent research shows that these fuzzy regression methods are commonly used to model customer preferences. However, these approaches have a common limitation in that they do not investigate the appropriate polynomial structure, which includes significant regressors with only significant engineering characteristics; also, they cannot generate interaction or high-order regressors in the models. The inclusion of insignificant regressors is not an effective approach when developing the models. Exclusion of significant regressors may affect the generalization capability of the consumer preference models. In this paper, a novel fuzzy modeling method is proposed, namely fuzzy stepwise regression (F-SR), in order to develop a customer preference model which is structured with an appropriate polynomial, which includes only significant regressors. Based on the appropriate polynomial structure, the fuzzy coefficients are determined using the fuzzy least-squares regression. The developed fuzzy regression model attempts to obtain a better generalization capability using a smaller number of regressors. The effectiveness of the F-SR is evaluated based on two design problems, namely a tea maker design and a solder paste dispenser design. Results show that better generalization capabilities can be obtained compared with the fuzzy regression methods commonly used for new product development. In addition, smaller scale consumer preference models with fewer engineering characteristics can be obtained. Hence, a simpler and more effective product development platform can be provided.

Che, E, Tuan, HD, Minh Tam Tam, HH & Nguyen, HH 2015, 'Successive Interference Mitigation in Multiuser MIMO Channels', IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 2185-2199.
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Chekli, L, Galloux, J, Zhao, YX, Gao, BY & Shon, HK 2015, 'Coagulation performance and floc characteristics of polytitanium tetrachloride (PTC) compared with titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and iron salts in humic acid-kaolin synthetic water treatment', SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 142, pp. 155-161.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Polymeric metal coagulants are increasingly used to improve the coagulation/flocculation process efficiency, yet the research on the development of titanium and particularly polytitanium salts remains very limited. In this study, the performance of recently developed polytitanium tetrachloride (PTC) coagulant was compared with both titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and a commonly used coagulant, ferric chloride (FeCl3) in terms of water quality parameters and floc properties. Compared with FeCl3 coagulant, titanium-based coagulants had broader region of good flocculation in terms of pH and coagulant dose. Further, they achieved higher removal of UV254 and turbidity but lower dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal. Charge neutralisation, physical entrapment of colloids within coagulant precipitates and adsorption were found to be the main coagulation mechanisms for TiCl4 while sweep coagulation and adsorption were found to play a more important role for both FeCl3 and PTC. The aggregated flocs formed by PTC flocculation had the largest floc size of around 836 μm with the highest floc growth rate. A little distinction of the floc strength factor was found among the coagulants tested (i.e. 44.8%, 44.2% and 38.9% for FeCl3, TiCl4 and PTC respectively) while TiCl4 coagulant yielded the flocs with the highest floc recovery factor. This study indicates that Ti-based coagulants are effective and promising coagulants for water purification. Besides, the resulted flocculated sludge can be recycled and produce functional TiO2 photocatalyst which is a significant advantage over conventional coagulants.

Chekli, L, Roy, M, Tijing, LD, Donner, E, Lombi, E & Shon, HK 2015, 'Agglomeration behaviour of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in river waters: A multi-method approach combining light scattering and field-flow fractionation techniques', JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, vol. 159, pp. 135-142.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) are currently one of the most prolifically used nanomaterials, resulting in an increasing likelihood of release to the environment. This is of concern as the potential toxicity of TiO2 NPs has been investigated in several recent studies. Research into their fate and behaviour once entering the environment is urgently needed to support risk assessment and policy development. In this study, we used a multi-method approach combining light scattering and field-flow fractionation techniques to assess both the aggregation behaviour and aggregate structure of TiO2 NPs in different river waters. Results showed that both the aggregate size and surface-adsorbed dissolved organic matter (DOM) were strongly related to the initial DOM concentration of the tested waters (i.e. R²>0.90) suggesting that aggregation of TiO2 NPs is controlled by the presence and concentration of DOM. The conformation of the formed aggregates was also found to be strongly related to the surface-adsorbed DOM (i.e. R²>0.95) with increasing surface-adsorbed DOM leading to more compact structures. Finally, the concentration of TiO2 NPs remaining in the supernatant after sedimentation of the larger aggregates was found to decrease proportionally with both increasing IS and decreasing DOM concentration, resulting in more than 95% sedimentation in the highest IS sample.

Chekli, L, Zhao, YX, Tijing, LD, Phuntsho, S, Donner, E, Lombi, E, Gao, BY & Shon, HK 2015, 'Aggregation behaviour of engineered nanoparticles in natural waters: Characterising aggregate structure using on-line laser light scattering', JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, vol. 284, pp. 190-200.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Adsorption of natural organic matter, aggregation and disaggregation have been identified as three of the main processes affecting the fate and behaviour of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in aquatic environments. However, although several methods have been developed to study the aggregation behaviour of ENPs in natural waters, there are only a few studies focusing on the fate of such aggregates and their potential disaggregation behaviour. In this study, we proposed and demonstrated a simple method for characterising the aggregation behaviour and aggregate structure of ENPs in different natural waters. Both the aggregate size of ENPs and their adsorption capacity for dissolved organic matter (DOM) were strongly related (R2>0.97, p<.05) to the combined effect of initial concentration of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the ionic strength of the natural waters. The structure of the formed aggregates was strongly correlated (R2>0.95, p<.05) to the amount of DOM adsorbed by the ENPs during the aggregation process. Under high ionic strength conditions, aggregation is mainly governed by diffusion and the aggregates formed under these conditions showed the lowest stability and fractal dimension, forming linear, chain-like aggregates. In contrast, under low ionic strength conditions, the aggregate structure was more compact, most likely due to strong chemical binding with DOM and bridging mechanisms involving divalent cations formed during reaction-limited aggregation.

Chelliah, J, Sood, S & Scholfield, S 2015, 'Realising the strategic value of RFID in academic libraries: a case study of the University of Technology Sydney', AUSTRALIAN LIBRARY JOURNAL, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 113-127.
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© 2015 Australian Library & Information Association. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is being increasingly implemented in academic libraries due to a promise of increased collections management efficiency. This paper reports on the recent implementation of RFID technology in the library at the University of Technology Sydney, providing insights into the change management process of RFID implementation. The paper focuses on the implications of the implementation and indigenisation of RFID technology for three specific and symbiotic areas of the library: people, processes and technology. Data from interviews with eight participants involved at various levels of the academic library were collected. This paper develops a best practice model through the insights gained by the people involved in the RFID implementation. The case study posits the dynamic relationships between people, processes and technology as greatly impacted by the implementation process, and analyses the divergence between projected and actual outcomes in the implementation process.

Chen, C, Indraratna, B, McDowell, G & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Discrete element modelling of lateral displacement of a granular assembly under cyclic loading', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 69, pp. 474-484.
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Chen, G, Wang, Z, Nghiem, LD, Li, X-M, Xie, M, Zhao, B, Zhang, M, Song, J & He, T 2015, 'Treatment of shale gas drilling flowback fluids (SGDFs) by forward osmosis: Membrane fouling and mitigation', DESALINATION, vol. 366, pp. 113-120.
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Chen, H, Zhang, G, Zhu, D & Lu, J 2015, 'A patent time series processing component for technology intelligence by trend identification functionality', NEURAL COMPUTING & APPLICATIONS, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 345-353.
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Chen, J, Huang, Z, Wang, C, Porter, S, Wang, B, Lie, W & Liu, HK 2015, 'Sodium-difluoro(oxalato)borate (NaDFOB): a new electrolyte salt for Na-ion batteries', Chemical Communications, vol. 51, no. 48, pp. 9809-9812.
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Compatible with various common solvents, a new electrolyte salt NaDFOB has been studied, which enables excellent reversible capacity and high rate capability when used in Na/Na_0.44MnO₂ half cells.

Chen, J, Ji, Z, Yu, N & Zeng, B 2015, 'Detecting Consistency of Overlapping Quantum Marginals by Separability', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 93, no. 3, p. 032105.
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The quantum marginal problem asks whether a set of given density matrices areconsistent, i.e., whether they can be the reduced density matrices of a globalquantum state. Not many non-trivial analytic necessary (or sufficient)conditions are known for the problem in general. We propose a method to detectconsistency of overlapping quantum marginals by considering the separability ofsome derived states. Our method works well for the $k$-symmetric extensionproblem in general, and for the general overlapping marginal problems in somecases. Our work is, in some sense, the converse to the well-known $k$-symmetricextension criterion for separability.

Chen, J, Liu, B, Zhou, H, Gui, L, Liu, N & Wu, Y 2015, 'Providing Vehicular Infotainment Service Using VHF/UHF TV Bands via Spatial Spectrum Reuse', IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 279-289.
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Chen, J, Xia, G, Guo, Z, Huang, Z, Liu, H & Yu, X 2015, 'Porous Ni nanofibers with enhanced catalytic effect on the hydrogen storage performance of MgH₂', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 3, no. 31, pp. 15843-15848.
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Porous Ni nanofibers (NFs) were synthesized via a single-nozzle electrospinning technique with subsequent calcination and reduction.

Chen, J-Y, Ji, Z, Liu, Z-X, Shen, Y & Zeng, B 2015, 'Geometry of reduced density matrices for symmetry-protected topological phases', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 93, no. 1, p. 012309.
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In this paper, we study the geometry of reduced density matrices for stateswith symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order. We observe ruled surfacestructures on the boundary of the convex set of low dimension projections ofthe reduced density matrices. In order to signal the SPT order using ruledsurfaces, it is important that we add a symmetry-breaking term to the boundaryof the system---no ruled surface emerges in systems without boundary or when weadd a symmetry-breaking term representing a thermodynamic quantity. Althoughthe ruled surfaces only appear in the thermodynamic limit where theground-state degeneracy is exact, we analyze the precision of our numericalalgorithm and show that a finite system calculation suffices to reveal theruled surface structures.

Chen, L, Shern, JF, Wei, JS, Yohe, ME, Song, YK, Hurd, L, Liao, H, Catchpoole, D, Skapek, SX, Barr, FG, Hawkins, DS & Khan, J 2015, 'Clonality and Evolutionary History of Rhabdomyosarcoma', PLOS Genetics, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. e1005075-e1005075.
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To infer the subclonality of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and predict the temporal order of genetic events for the tumorigenic process, and to identify novel drivers, we applied a systematic method that takes into account germline and somatic alterations in 44 tumor-normal RMS pairs using deep whole-genome sequencing. Intriguingly, we find that loss of heterozygosity of 11p15.5 and mutations in RAS pathway genes occur early in the evolutionary history of the PAX-fusion-negative-RMS (PFN-RMS) subtype. We discover several early mutations in non-RAS mutated samples and predict them to be drivers in PFN-RMS including recurrent mutation of PKN1. In contrast, we find that PAX-fusion-positive (PFP) subtype tumors have undergone whole-genome duplication in the late stage of cancer evolutionary history and have acquired fewer mutations and subclones than PFN-RMS. Moreover we predict that the PAX3-FOXO1 fusion event occurs earlier than the whole genome duplication. Our findings provide information critical to the understanding of tumorigenesis of RMS.

Chen, M, Tsang, IW, Tan, M & Cham, TJ 2015, 'A Unified Feature Selection Framework for Graph Embedding on High Dimensional Data', IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 1465-1477.
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© 2014 IEEE. Although graph embedding has been a powerful tool for modeling data intrinsic structures, simply employing all features for data structure discovery may result in noise amplification. This is particularly severe for high dimensional data with small samples. To meet this challenge, this paper proposes a novel efficient framework to perform feature selection for graph embedding, in which a category of graph embedding methods is cast as a least squares regression problem. In this framework, a binary feature selector is introduced to naturally handle the feature cardinality in the least squares formulation. The resultant integral programming problem is then relaxed into a convex Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Program (QCQP) learning problem, which can be efficiently solved via a sequence of accelerated proximal gradient (APG) methods. Since each APG optimization is w.r.t. only a subset of features, the proposed method is fast and memory efficient. The proposed framework is applied to several graph embedding learning problems, including supervised, unsupervised, and semi-supervised graph embedding. Experimental results on several high dimensional data demonstrated that the proposed method outperformed the considered state-of-the-art methods.

Chen, M, Willgoose, GR & Saco, PM 2015, 'Evaluation of the hydrology of the IBIS land surface model in a semi‐arid catchment', Hydrological Processes, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 653-670.
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AbstractThis paper evaluates the Integrated BIosphere Simulator (IBIS) land surface model using daily soil moisture data over a 3‐year period (2005–2007) at a semi‐arid site in southeastern Australia, the Stanley catchment, using the Monte Carlo generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) approach. The model was satisfactorily calibrated for both the surface 30 cm and full profile 90 cm. However, full‐profile calibration was not as good as that for the surface, which results from some deficiencies in the evapotranspiration component in IBIS. Relatively small differences in simulated soil moisture were associated with large discrepancies in the predictions of surface runoff, drainage and evapotranspiration. We conclude that while land surface schemes may be effective at simulating heat fluxes, they may be ineffective for prediction of hydrology unless the soil moisture is accurately estimated. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the soil moisture simulations were most sensitive to soil parameters, and the wilting point was the most identifiable parameter. Significant interactions existed between three soils parameters: porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity and Campbell ‘b’ exponent, so they could not be identified independent of each other. There were no significant differences in parameter sensitivity and interaction for different hydroclimatic years. Even though the data record contained a very dry year and another year with a very large rainfall event, this indicated that the soil model could be calibrated without the data needing to explore the extreme range of dry and wet conditions. IBIS was much less sensitive to vegetation parameters. The leaf area index (LAI) could affect the mean of daily soil moisture time series when LAI < 1, while the variance of the soil moisture time series was sensitive to LAI > 1. IBIS was insensitive to the Jackson rooting parameter, suggesting that the effect of the ...

Chen, M, Willgoose, GR & Saco, PM 2015, 'Investigating the impact of leaf area index temporal variability on soil moisture predictions using remote sensing vegetation data', Journal of Hydrology, vol. 522, pp. 274-284.
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Chen, Q & Indraratna, B 2015, 'Deformation Behavior of Lignosulfonate-Treated Sandy Silt under Cyclic Loading', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 141, no. 1, pp. 06014015-06014015.
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Chen, Q & Indraratna, B 2015, 'Shear behaviour of sandy silt treated with lignosulfonate', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 52, no. 8, pp. 1180-1185.
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Chemical stabilizers (e.g., cement, lime, gypsum, and other alkaline admixtures) have been widely used to enhance the strength and compressibility properties of subgrade soils. However, traditional chemical stabilizers are not always acceptable in Australia because they often pose a threat to the surrounding environment. Moreover, traditionally treated soils usually exhibit excessive brittle behaviour, which is often undesirable for transport infrastructure such as rail embankments and airport runways. To establish an alternative stabilizer that could overcome the above problems, this note presents a series of experimental results on the use of lignosulfonate (by-product of timber and paper industry), an environmentally friendly soil stabilizer effective for treating fine sandy silt that formed the bulk of an embankment fill at Penrith, Australia. The effects of lignosulfonate treatment on the shear behaviour of treated soil, including the stress–strain relationships, and the corresponding development of excess pore pressure and volumetric responses under monotonic triaxial testing are discussed.

Chen, T, Yu, N & Han, T 2015, 'Continuous-time orbit problems are decidable in polynomial-time', Information Processing Letters, vol. 115, no. 1, pp. 11-14.
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Chen, W, Huang, Z, Wu, G & Chen, P 2015, 'New synthetic procedure for NaNH2(BH3)2 and evaluation of its hydrogen storage properties', Science China Chemistry, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 169-173.
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Chen, W, Huang, Z, Wu, G, He, T, Li, Z, Chen, J, Guo, Z, Liu, H & Chen, P 2015, 'Guanidinium octahydrotriborate: an ionic liquid with high hydrogen storage capacity', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 3, no. 21, pp. 11411-11416.
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Guanidinium octahydrotriborate, with a melting point of <−10 °C, releases >10 wt% high purity hydrogen below 100 °C.

Chen, X, Guo, J, Xie, G-J, Liu, Y, Yuan, Z & Ni, B-J 2015, 'A new approach to simultaneous ammonium and dissolved methane removal from anaerobic digestion liquor: A model-based investigation of feasibility', Water Research, vol. 85, pp. 295-303.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. The presence of a high level of dissolved methane (e.g., 20-26 g m-3) in the anaerobic sludge digestion liquor represents a major challenge to the treatment of this stream, as its emission to the atmosphere contributes significantly to the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment. Here we propose a new approach to simultaneous ammonium and dissolved methane removal from the anaerobic digestion liquor through integrating partial nitritation-Anammox and denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation (DAMO) processes in a single-stage membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR). In such an MBfR, the anaerobic digestion liquor is provided in the bulk liquid, while oxygen is supplied through gas-permeable membranes to avoid dissolved methane stripping. A previously developed model with appropriate extensions was applied to assess the system performance under different operational conditions and the corresponding microbial interactions. Both influent surface loading (or hydraulic retention time) and oxygen surface loading are found to significantly influence the total nitrogen (TN) and dissolved methane removal, which jointly determine the overall system performance. The counter diffusion and concentration gradients of substrates cause microbial stratification in the biofilm, where ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) attach close to the membrane surface (biofilm base) where oxygen and ammonium are available, while Anammox and DAMO microorganisms jointly grow in the biofilm layer close to the bulk liquid where methane, ammonium, and nitrite are available with the latter produced by AOB. These results provide first insights and useful information for the design and operation of this new technology for simultaneous ammonium and dissolved methane removal in its potential future applications.

Chen, X, Ni, W, Wang, X & Sun, Y 2015, 'Provisioning quality-of-service to energy harvesting wireless communications', IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 102-109.
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Chen, Y, Zhang, X, Feng, Y, Liang, J & Chen, H 2015, 'Sunburst with ordered nodes based on hierarchical clustering: a visual analyzing method for associated hierarchical pesticide residue data', Journal of Visualization, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 237-254.
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© 2015, The Visualization Society of Japan. Abstract: According to the characteristics of pesticide residue data and analyzing requirements in food safety fields, we presented a visual analyzing method for associated hierarchical data, called sunburst with ordered nodes based on hierarchical clustering (SONHC). SONHC arranged the leaf nodes in sunburst in order using hierarchical clustering algorithm, put the associated dataset as a node in center of the sunburst, and connected it with the associated leaf nodes in sunburst using colored lines. So, it can present not only two hierarchical structures but also the relationships between them. Based on SONHC and some interaction techniques (clicking, contraction and expansion, etc) we developed an associated visual analyzing system (AVAS) for pesticide residues detection results data, which can help users to inspect the hierarchical structure of pesticide and agricultural products and to explore the associations between pesticides and agricultural products, and associations between different pesticides. The results of user experience test showed that SONHC algorithm overperforms than SA and SR algorithm in ULE and ULE’s variance. AVAS system is effective in helping users to analyze the pesticide residues data. Furthermore, SONHC algorithm can also be adopted to analyze associated hierarchical data in other fields, such as finance, insurance and e-commerce.Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Cheng, H-C, Hsieh, M-H & Tomamichel, M 2015, 'Exponential Decay of Matrix $Φ$-Entropies on Markov Semigroups with Applications to Dynamical Evolutions of Quantum Ensembles', Journal of Mathematical Physics, 58(9), 092202, Sep 2017, vol. 58, no. 9.
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In the study of Markovian processes, one of the principal achievements is theequivalence between the $\Phi$-Sobolev inequalities and an exponential decreaseof the $\Phi$-entropies. In this work, we develop a framework of Markovsemigroups on matrix-valued functions and generalize the above equivalence tothe exponential decay of matrix $\Phi$-entropies. This result also specializesto spectral gap inequalities and modified logarithmic Sobolev inequalities inthe random matrix setting. To establish the main result, we define anon-commutative generalization of the carr\'e du champ operator, and prove a deBruijn's identity for matrix-valued functions. The proposed Markov semigroups acting on matrix-valued functions haveimmediate applications in the characterization of the dynamical evolution ofquantum ensembles. We consider two special cases of quantum unital channels,namely, the depolarizing channel and the phase-damping channel. In the former,since there exists a unique equilibrium state, we show that the matrix$\Phi$-entropy of the resulting quantum ensemble decays exponentially as timegoes on. Consequently, we obtain a stronger notion of monotonicity of theHolevo quantity - the Holevo quantity of the quantum ensemble decaysexponentially in time and the convergence rate is determined by the modifiedlog-Sobolev inequalities. However, in the latter, the matrix $\Phi$-entropy ofthe quantum ensemble that undergoes the phase-damping Markovian evolutiongenerally will not decay exponentially. This is because there are multipleequilibrium states for such a channel. Finally, we also consider examples of statistical mixing of Markov semigroupson matrix-valued functions. We can explicitly calculate the convergence rate ofa Markovian jump process defined on Boolean hypercubes, and provide upperbounds of the mixing time on these types of examples.

Cheng, J, Kim, J, Shao, J & Zhang, W 2015, 'Robust linear pose graph-based SLAM', Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 72, pp. 71-82.
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Cheng, X, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Hao, L, Zhao, J & Jiang, L 2015, 'Oxide scale characterization of ferritic stainless steel and its deformation and friction in hot rolling', Tribology International, vol. 84, pp. 61-70.
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Cheng, X, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Zhao, J, Monaghan, BJ, Longbottom, RJ & Jiang, L 2015, 'High temperature oxidation behaviour of ferritic stainless steel SUS 430 in humid air', Metals and Materials International, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 251-259.
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Cheng, X, Jiang, Z, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Hao, L, Peng, J, Luo, M, Ma, L, Luo, S & Jiang, L 2015, 'Investigation of oxide scale on ferritic stainless steel B445J1M and its tribological effect in hot rolling', Wear, vol. 338-339, pp. 178-188.
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Cheung, BB, Tan, O, Koach, J, Liu, B, Shum, MSY, Carter, DR, Sutton, S, Po'uha, ST, Chesler, L, Haber, M, Norris, MD, Kavallaris, M, Liu, T, O'Neill, GM & Marshall, GM 2015, 'Thymosin‐β4 is a determinant of drug sensitivity for Fenretinide and Vorinostat combination therapy in neuroblastoma', Molecular Oncology, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 1484-1500.
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AbstractRetinoids are an important component of neuroblastoma therapy at the stage of minimal residual disease, yet 40–50% of patients treated with 13‐cis‐retinoic acid (13‐cis‐RA) still relapse, indicating the need for more effective retinoid therapy. Vorinostat, or Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), is a potent inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC) classes I & II and has antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo. Fenretinide (4‐HPR) is a synthetic retinoid which acts on cancer cells through both nuclear retinoid receptor and non‐receptor mechanisms. In this study, we found that the combination of 4‐HPR + SAHA exhibited potent cytotoxic effects on neuroblastoma cells, much more effective than 13‐cis‐RA + SAHA. The 4‐HPR + SAHA combination induced caspase‐dependent apoptosis through activation of caspase 3, reduced colony formation and cell migration in vitro, and tumorigenicity in vivo. The 4‐HPR and SAHA combination significantly increased mRNA expression of thymosin‐beta‐4 (Tβ4) and decreased mRNA expression of retinoic acid receptor α (RARα). Importantly, the up‐regulation of Tβ4 and down‐regulation of RARα were both necessary for the 4‐HPR + SAHA cytotoxic effect on neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, Tβ4 knockdown in neuroblastoma cells increased cell migration and blocked the effect of 4‐HPR + SAHA on cell migration and focal adhesion formation. In primary human neuroblastoma tumor tissues, low expression of Tβ4 was associated with metastatic disease and predicted poor patient prognosis. Our findings demonstrate that Tβ4 is a novel therapeutic target in neuroblastoma, and that 4‐HPR + SAHA is a potential therapy for the disease.

Chiaro, G, Indraratna, B & Tasalloti, SMA 2015, 'Predicting the behaviour of coal wash and steel slag mixtures under triaxial conditions', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 367-373.
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The effective reuse and recycling of granular waste materials, namely coal wash (CW) and basic oxygen steel slag (BOS), are economically beneficial and environmentally sustainable. Nevertheless, due to the heterogeneity of these granular waste materials, the ultimate adoption of CW and BOS as structural fills must be supported by constitutive relationships capable of accurately describing the stress–strain behaviour under representative field loading conditions. In this paper, a critical state surface generalized plasticity model is presented, and its predictive capability using an explicit set of soil parameters is demonstrated for drained triaxial compression tests.

Chiaro, G, Indraratna, B, Tasalloti, SMA & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Optimisation of coal wash–slag blend as a structural fill', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Ground Improvement, vol. 168, no. 1, pp. 33-44.
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Coal wash (CW) and basic oxygen steel slag fines (BOS) are by-products of the coal mining and steel industries, respectively. Their effective reuse and recycling through large-scale geotechnical projects, such as port reclamation, is economically beneficial and environmentally sustainable. In this study, CW and BOS were blended in order to explore the possibility to obtain synthetic fills having geotechnical properties similar or superior to conventional fills, therefore suitable as a structural fill for the Port Kembla Outer Harbour reclamation near Wollongong City, Australia. A framework with four levels of acceptance is proposed in this paper to select granular waste as structural fill materials. This framework was used for optimising the CW-BOS blend. It was found that for the Port Kembla Outer Harbour reclamation, a CW-BOS blend with a BOS content between 30 and 45% can meet most geotechnical specifications (i.e. high shear strength and bearing capacity, low swelling and particle breakage levels, and adequate permeability) required for a suitable structural fill above the high tidal level.

Chitambar, E & Hsieh, M-H 2015, 'Relating the Resource Theories of Entanglement and Quantum Coherence', Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 117, no. 2, p. 020402.
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Quantum coherence and quantum entanglement represent two fundamental featuresof non-classical systems that can each be characterized within an operationalresource theory. In this paper, we unify the resource theories of entanglementand coherence by studying their combined behavior in the operational setting oflocal incoherent operations and classical communication (LIOCC). Specificallywe analyze the coherence and entanglement trade-offs in the tasks of stateformation and resource distillation. For pure states we identify the minimumcoherence-entanglement resources needed to generate a given state, and weintroduce a new LIOCC monotone that completely characterizes a state's optimalrate of bipartite coherence distillation. This result allows us to preciselyquantify the difference in operational powers between global incoherentoperations, LIOCC, and local incoherent operations \textit{without} classicalcommunication. Finally, a bipartite mixed state is shown to have distillableentanglement if and only if entanglement can be distilled by LIOCC, and westrengthen the well-known Horodecki criterion for distillability.

Chitambar, E, Fortescue, B & Hsieh, M-H 2015, 'A Classical Analog to Entanglement Reversibility', Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 115, no. 9, pp. 090501-5.
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In this letter we introduce the problem of secrecy reversibility. This askswhen two honest parties can distill secret bits from some tripartitedistribution $p_{XYZ}$ and transform secret bits back into $p_{XYZ}$ at equalrates using local operation and public communication (LOPC). This is theclassical analog to the well-studied problem of reversibly concentrating anddiluting entanglement in a quantum state. We identify the structure ofdistributions possessing reversible secrecy when one of the honest partiesholds a binary distribution, and it is possible that all reversibledistributions have this form. These distributions are more general than what isobtained by simply constructing a classical analog to the family of quantumstates known to have reversible entanglement. An indispensable tool used in ouranalysis is a conditional form of the G\'{a}cs-K\'{o}rner Common Information.

Choo, Y, Mahajan, LH, Gopinadhan, M, Ndaya, D, Deshmukh, P, Kasi, RM & Osuji, CO 2015, 'Phase Behavior of Polylactide-Based Liquid Crystalline Brushlike Block Copolymers', Macromolecules, vol. 48, no. 22, pp. 8315-8322.
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Choudhury, MH, Ciampi, S, Yang, Y, Tavallaie, R, Zhu, Y, Zarei, L, Gonçales, VR & Gooding, JJ 2015, 'Connecting electrodes with light: one wire, many electrodes', Chemical Science, vol. 6, no. 12, pp. 6769-6776.
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The requirement of a wire to each electrode is central to the design of any electronic device but can also be a major restriction. Herein it is shown how electrodes can be connected using light such that a multielectrode device requires only a single physical wire.

Chuang, C-H, Huang, C-S, Ko, L-W & Lin, C-T 2015, 'An EEG-based perceptual function integration network for application to drowsy driving', Knowledge-Based Systems, vol. 80, pp. 143-152.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Drowsy driving is among the most critical causes of fatal crashes. Thus, the development of an effective algorithm for detecting a driver's cognitive state demands immediate attention. For decades, studies have observed clear evidence using electroencephalography that the brain's rhythmic activities fluctuate from alertness to drowsiness. Recognition of this physiological signal is the major consideration of neural engineering for designing a feasible countermeasure. This study proposed a perceptual function integration system which used spectral features from multiple independent brain sources for application to recognize the driver's vigilance state. The analysis of brain spectral dynamics demonstrated physiological evidenced that the activities of the multiple cortical sources were highly related to the changes of the vigilance state. The system performances showed a robust and improved accuracy as much as 88% higher than any of results performed by a single-source approach.

Clement, S, Deng, W, Drozdowicz-Tomsia, K, Liu, D, Zachreson, C & Goldys, EM 2015, 'Bright, water-soluble CeF3 photo-, cathodo-, and X-ray luminescent nanoparticles', Journal of Nanoparticle Research, vol. 17, no. 1.
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© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Bright, water-soluble CeF3 nanoparticles with small size and narrow size distribution have been synthesized using a simple co-precipitation method without any ligands. Size control of nanoparticles from 13 ± 2 to 9 ± 2 nm was achieved by varying the reaction time. Colloidal properties have been found to vary with pH and, independently, with dilution. The photoluminescence of the as-synthesized nanoparticles shows a highly photostable UV/Visible fluorescence band due to allowed 5d–4f transitions, also observed in the X-ray luminescence spectrum. This band is suitable for X-ray excitation of a range of photosensitizers. The photoluminescence quantum yield of nanoparticles was also determined to be 31 %. Using the measured fluorescence decay time of 25 ns, the radiative lifetime of Ce in CeF3 was found to be 80.6 ns. Both photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence emission are affected by the reaction time and measurement temperature. Electron-beam-induced defect annealing is also observed.

Coles, PJ, Berta, M, Tomamichel, M & Wehner, S 2015, 'Entropic Uncertainty Relations and their Applications', Rev. Mod. Phys., vol. 89, no. 1, pp. 015002-58.
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Heisenberg's uncertainty principle forms a fundamental element of quantummechanics. Uncertainty relations in terms of entropies were initially proposedto deal with conceptual shortcomings in the original formulation of theuncertainty principle and, hence, play an important role in quantumfoundations. More recently, entropic uncertainty relations have emerged as thecentral ingredient in the security analysis of almost all quantum cryptographicprotocols, such as quantum key distribution and two-party quantum cryptography.This review surveys entropic uncertainty relations that capture Heisenberg'sidea that the results of incompatible measurements are impossible to predict,covering both finite- and infinite-dimensional measurements. These ideas arethen extended to incorporate quantum correlations between the observed objectand its environment, allowing for a variety of recent, more generalformulations of the uncertainty principle. Finally, various applications arediscussed, ranging from entanglement witnessing to wave-particle duality toquantum cryptography.

Combes, J & Ferrie, C 2015, 'Cost of postselection in decision theory', Physical Review A, vol. 92, no. 2, pp. 1-9.
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© 2015 American Physical Society. Postselection is the process of discarding outcomes from statistical trials that are not the event one desires. Postselection can be useful in many applications where the cost of getting the wrong event is implicitly high. However, unless this cost is specified exactly, one might conclude that discarding all data is optimal. Here we analyze the optimal decision rules and quantum measurements in a decision theoretic setting where a prespecified cost is assigned to discarding data. Our scheme interpolates between unambiguous state discrimination (when the cost of postselection is zero) and a minimum error measurement (when the cost of postselection is maximal). We also relate our formulation to previous approaches which focus on minimizing the probability of indecision.

Cook, AJ, Gargiulo, GD, Lehmann, T & Hamilton, TJ 2015, 'Open platform, eight‐channel, portable bio‐potential and activity data logger for wearable medical device development', Electronics Letters, vol. 51, no. 21, pp. 1641-1643.
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© 2015 The Institution of Engineering and Technology. The design of a wearable, portable and reconfigurable physical activity and an eight-channel bio-potential data logger, capable of increasing compliance by enabling customised feedback (i.e. calories expenditure and amount of physical activity) is presented while recording clinically meaningful information regarding a subject's health. Here an application of the device to the cardio-vascular system comprising simultaneous recording of ECG and activity in both resting and under-stress conditions is presented (clinical trials are performed under the supervision of expert cardiologists at Prince of Wales Hospital NSW, Australia). The designed device (based around the low-power LPC1768 ARM processor and the bio-potential front-end ADS1298) is an open-source one and is provided under the GPL GNU 3.0 collaborative licence.

Cooper, CS, Mukunthan, A, Safaei, F, Ros, M, Franklin, DR & Abolhasan, M 2015, 'Including general environmental effects in K-factor approximation for rice-distributed VANET channels.', Phys. Commun., vol. 14, pp. 32-44.
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This paper presents a method of approximating the Rician K-factor based on the instantaneous static environment. The strongest signal propagation paths are resolved in order to determine specular and diffuse powers for approximation. The model is experimentally validated in two different urban areas in New South Wales, Australia. Good agreement between the model and experimental data was obtained over short-range communication links, demonstrating the suitability of the model in urban VANETs. The paper concludes with recommendations for methods to account for vehicles in the simulation and incorporating additional phenomena (such as scattering) in the approximation.

Corsetti, S, Miles, REH, McDonald, C, Belotti, Y, Reid, JP, Kiefer, J & McGloin, D 2015, 'Probing the Evaporation Dynamics of Ethanol/Gasoline Biofuel Blends Using Single Droplet Manipulation Techniques', The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, vol. 119, no. 51, pp. 12797-12804.
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Corsetti, S, Zehentbauer, FM, McGloin, D & Kiefer, J 2015, 'Characterization of gasoline/ethanol blends by infrared and excess infrared spectroscopy', Fuel, vol. 141, pp. 136-142.
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Cowern, NEB, Simdyankin, S, Goss, JP, Napolitani, E, De Salvador, D, Bruno, E, Mirabella, S, Ahn, C & Bennett, NS 2015, 'Comment on “Diffusion of n-type dopants in germanium” [Appl. Phys. Rev. 1, 011301 (2014)]', Applied Physics Reviews, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 036101-036101.
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The authors of the above paper call into question recent evidence on the properties of self-interstitials, I, in Ge [Cowern et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 155501 (2013)]. We show that this judgment stems from invalid model assumptions during analysis of data on B marker-layer diffusion during proton irradiation, and that a corrected analysis fully supports the reported evidence. As previously stated, I-mediated self-diffusion in Ge exhibits two distinct regimes of temperature, T: high-T, dominated by amorphous-like mono-interstitial clusters—i-morphs—with self-diffusion entropy ≈30 k, and low-T, where transport is dominated by simple self-interstitials. In a transitional range centered on 475 °C both mechanisms contribute. The experimental I migration energy of 1.84 ± 0.26 eV reported by the Münster group based on measurements of self-diffusion during irradiation at 550 °C &lt; T &lt; 680 °C further establishes our proposed i-morph mechanism.

Cui, H, Wang, X, Zhou, J, Eberl, S, Feng, D & Fulham, M 2015, 'Improved segmentation accuracy for thoracic PET-CT in patients with NSCLC using a multi-graph model (MGM)', JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 2527-2527.

Cui, H, Wang, X, Zhou, J, Eberl, S, Yin, Y, Feng, D & Fulham, M 2015, 'Topology polymorphism graph for lung tumor segmentation in PET-CT images', Physics in Medicine and Biology, vol. 60, no. 12, pp. 4893-4914.
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Cui, H, Xu, F & Saha, SC 2015, 'A three-dimensional simulation of transient natural convection in a triangular cavity', International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 85, pp. 1012-1022.
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Cui, SX, Yu, N & Zeng, B 2015, 'Generalized graph states based on Hadamard matrices', Journal of Mathematical Physics, vol. 56, no. 7, pp. 072201-072201.
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Graph states are widely used in quantum information theory, including entanglement theory, quantum error correction, and one-way quantum computing. Graph states have a nice structure related to a certain graph, which is given by either a stabilizer group or an encoding circuit, both can be directly given by the graph. To generalize graph states, whose stabilizer groups are abelian subgroups of the Pauli group, one approach taken is to study non-abelian stabilizers. In this work, we propose to generalize graph states based on the encoding circuit, which is completely determined by the graph and a Hadamard matrix. We study the entanglement structures of these generalized graph states and show that they are all maximally mixed locally. We also explore the relationship between the equivalence of Hadamard matrices and local equivalence of the corresponding generalized graph states. This leads to a natural generalization of the Pauli (X, Z) pairs, which characterizes the local symmetries of these generalized graph states. Our approach is also naturally generalized to construct graph quantum codes which are beyond stabilizer codes.

Cui, Y, Zhang, J, Guo, D & Jin, Z 2015, 'Robust facial landmark localization using classified random ferns and pose-based initialization', Signal Processing, vol. 110, pp. 46-53.
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da Rocha, CG & Kemmer, SL 2015, 'Closure to “Method to Implement Delayed Product Differentiation in Construction of High-Rise Apartment Building Projects” by Cecília Gravina da Rocha and Sergio Luiz Kemmer', Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, vol. 141, no. 2, pp. 07014004-07014004.
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Dadras, M, Shafri, HZM, Ahmad, N, Pradhan, B & Safarpour, S 2015, 'Spatio-temporal analysis of urban growth from remote sensing data in Bandar Abbas city, Iran', The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 35-52.
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Dang, HQ, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Rejection and adsorption behaviour of phytoestrogens by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 54, no. 4-5, pp. 890-899.
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Dangniam, N & Ferrie, C 2015, 'Quantum Bochner’s theorem for phase spaces built on projective representations', Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 115305-115305.
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Dehbokry, S & Chew, EK 2015, 'Developing Business Architecture for SMEs: A Strategic Tool for Capability Orchestration and Managing Dynamisms', Journal of Innovation Management in Small and Medium Enterprise, vol. 2015, pp. 1-9.
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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly faced with competitive pressure due to swift and constant change to the dynamic and highly interconnected environment in which they operate. Competing in this dynamic ecosystem, SMEs need a strategic tool for managing co-evolution with the dynamic environment in order to create sustained value. Drawing from the specific SME characteristics operating in a collaborative network ecosystem of firms, this paper elicits the specific strategic management requirements that need to be satisfied by a Business Architecture. Extensive exploratory literature review and semi-structured interviews are used to explicate the underlying drivers of SME’s requirements for business architecture that need to be addressed by the requisite BA practice. The paper finds that, the BA practice must possess the capabilities to guide and assist the SMEs to adapt with the dynamic collaborative ecosystem of firms and sense, leverage and orchestrate the network of resources and ICT capabilities to create sustained value. This paper concludes with some guidelines for developing the business architecture-enabled journey toward creating sustained value within the said dynamic ecosystem.

Dehnavi, A, Aghdam, IN, Pradhan, B & Morshed Varzandeh, MH 2015, 'A new hybrid model using step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) technique and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for regional landslide hazard assessment in Iran', CATENA, vol. 135, pp. 122-148.
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Deng, L, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Zuthi, MFR, Zhang, J, Liang, S, Li, J, Wang, J & Zhang, X 2015, 'Membrane fouling reduction and improvement of sludge characteristics by bioflocculant addition in submerged membrane bioreactor', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 156, pp. 450-458.
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Deng, S, Wang, D, Li, X & Xu, G 2015, 'Exploring user emotion in microblogs for music recommendation', Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 42, no. 23, pp. 9284-9293.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Context-aware recommendation has become increasingly important and popular in recent years when users are immersed in enormous music contents and have difficulty to make their choices. User emotion, as one of the most important contexts, has the potential to improve music recommendation, but has not yet been fully explored due to the great difficulty of emotion acquisition. This article utilizes users' microblogs to extract their emotions at different granularity levels and during different time windows. The approach then correlates three elements: user, music and the user's emotion when he/she is listening to the music piece. Based on the associations extracted from a data set crawled from a Chinese Twitter service, we develop several emotion-aware methods to perform music recommendation. We conduct a series of experiments and show that the proposed solution proves that considering user emotional context can indeed improve recommendation performance in terms of hit rate, precision, recall, and F1 score.

Deng, W, Farnham, MMJ, Goldys, EM, Mohammed, S & Pilowsky, PM 2015, 'Gene Interference with Morpholinos in a Gold Nanoparticle-Based Delivery Platform in Rat PC12 Cells', Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology, vol. 11, no. 12, pp. 2111-2123.
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Deng, Z, Cao, L, Jiang, Y & Wang, S 2015, 'Minimax Probability TSK Fuzzy System Classifier: A More Transparent and Highly Interpretable Classification Model', IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 813-826.
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© 1993-2012 IEEE. When an intelligent model is used for medical diagnosis, it is desirable to have a high level of interpretability and transparent model reliability for users. Compared with most of the existing intelligence models, fuzzy systems have shown a distinctive advantage in their interpretabilities. However, how to determine the model reliability of a fuzzy system trained for a recognition task is still an unsolved problem at present. In this study, a minimax probability Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy system classifier called MP-TSK-FSC is proposed to train a fuzzy system classifier and determine the model reliability simultaneously. For the proposed MP-TSK-FSC, a lower bound of correct classification can be presented to the users to characterize the reliability of the trained fuzzy classifier. Thus, the obtained classifier has the distinctive characteristics of both a high level of interpretability and transparent model reliability inherited from the fuzzy system and minimax probability learning strategy, respectively. Our experiments on synthetic datasets and several real-world datasets for medical diagnosis have confirmed the distinctive characteristics of the proposed method.

Di Bartolo, BA, Cartland, SP, Prado‐Lourenco, L, Griffith, TS, Gentile, C, Ravindran, J, Azahri, NSM, Thai, T, Yeung, AWS, Thomas, SR & Kavurma, MM 2015, 'Tumor Necrosis Factor–Related Apoptosis‐Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) Promotes Angiogenesis and Ischemia‐Induced Neovascularization Via NADPH Oxidase 4 (NOX4) and Nitric Oxide–Dependent Mechanisms', Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 4, no. 11.
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Background Tumor necrosis factor–related apoptosis‐inducing ligand ( TRAIL ) has the ability to inhibit angiogenesis by inducing endothelial cell death, as well as being able to promote pro‐angiogenic activity in vitro. These seemingly opposite effects make its role in ischemic disease unclear. Using Trail −/− and wildtype mice, we sought to determine the role of TRAIL in angiogenesis and neovascularization following hindlimb ischemia. Methods and Results Reduced vascularization assessed by real‐time 3‐dimensional Vevo ultrasound imaging and CD 31 staining was evident in Trail −/− mice after ischemia, and associated with reduced capillary formation and increased apoptosis. Notably, adenoviral TRAIL administration significantly improved limb perfusion, capillary density, and vascular smooth‐muscle cell content in both Trail −/− and wildtype mice. Fibroblast growth factor‐2, a potent angiogeni...

Dibs, H, Mansor, S, Ahmad, N & Pradhan, B 2015, 'Band-to-band registration model for near-equatorial Earth observation satellite images with the use of automatic control point extraction', International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 36, no. 8, pp. 2184-2200.
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Ding, C, Guo, YJ, Qin, P-Y & Yang, Y 2015, 'A Compact Microstrip Phase Shifter Employing Reconfigurable Defected Microstrip Structure (RDMS) for Phased Array Antennas', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, vol. 63, no. 5, pp. 1985-1996.
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© 1963-2012 IEEE. A compact phase shifter using reconfigurable defected microstrip structure (RDMS) is proposed for phased array antennas. A complete phase shifter design scheme that serves as an engineering guidance is described. Stepwise phase shifters that have phase-shifting ranges of 90° and 180° with a step size of 45° are designed, fabricated, and tested. The experimental results demonstrate that the size, maximum insertion loss of the phase shifters, and the quantity of the lumped elements are reduced by 80%-90%, 25%-30%, and 50%, respectively, compared to our previous work. Subsequently, a four-element phased array is built employing such RDMS-based phase shifters, realizing a size reduction of 55% in the array size. The measurement results show that the phased array antenna is able to switch its main beam between -15°, 0°, and 15° in the H-plane, with the average realized gain around 10 dBi.

Ding, F, Han, X, Zhang, N & Luo, Z 2015, 'Characteristic analysis of pitch-resistant hydraulically interconnected suspensions for two-axle vehicles', Journal of Vibration and Control, vol. 21, no. 16, pp. 3167-3188.
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This paper proposes a new method to investigate the characteristics of pitch-resistant hydraulically interconnected suspension (HIS) systems for two-axle vehicles in the pitch plane. The equations of motion for the mechanical and hydraulic coupled system are developed, in which the hydraulic strut forces are derived using the impedance transfer matrix method. The stiffness and damping matrices of the coupled systems are described in a manner similar to the generalized form of uncoupled conventional suspension (UCS) systems. The additional properties of HIS systems are explicitly described via hydraulic physical parameters. Based on the generalized form, (1) the accumulators of HIS systems can be functionally equivalent to a combined system with tandem bump and pitch-angular springs; (2) the direction damper valves (DDVs), which are located at the outlets of actuator cylinders, function like uncoupled tandem dampers; (3) the pitch damper valves (PDVs), which are fitted on the hose to connect the accumulators, alter the mode damping similar to the accumulators changing the mode stiffness; (4) the opposite installation corresponding to the schematic of front piston-rod-upward and rear piston-rod-downward produces higher mode stiffness and damping than the other installations. The dynamic responses are studied between the vehicles with HIS and UCS. Moreover, the damping coefficients are evaluated with the modal analysis method. The obtained results indicate that (1) the top and bottom DDVs mainly affect the vehicle body’s pitch motion and bounce vibration, respectively, (2) the PDVs are able to alter the load distribution among wheel stations, and (3) damping parameters can be designed to minimize the vehicle body’s pitch motion.

Ding, J, Dutkiewicz, E & Huang, X 2015, 'Joint optimal relay location and power allocation for ultra-wideband-based wireless body area networks', EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, vol. 2015, no. 1.
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© 2015, Ding et al.; licensee Springer. In this paper, we study the joint optimal relay location and power allocation problem for single-relay-assisted ultra-wideband (UWB)-based wireless body area networks (WBANs). Specifically, to optimize spectral efficiency (SE) for single-relay cooperative communication in UWB-based WBANs, we seek the relay with the optimal location together with the corresponding optimal power allocation. With proposed relay-location-based network models, the SE maximization problems are mathematically formulated by considering three practical scenarios, namely, along-torso scenario, around-torso scenario, and in-body scenario. Taking into account realistic power considerations for each scenario, the optimal relay location and power allocation are jointly derived and analyzed. Numerical results show the necessity of utilization of relay node for the spectral and energy-efficient transmission in UWB-based WBANs and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in particular for the around-torso and in-body scenarios. With the joint optimal relay location and power allocation, the proposed scheme is able to prolong the network lifetime and extend the transmission range in WBANs significantly compared to direct transmission.

Ding, Y, Huang, W, Sheng, D & Sloan, SW 2015, 'Numerical study on finite element implementation of hypoplastic models', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 68, pp. 78-90.
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Dinh, VA, Giri, PC, Rathinavel, I, Nguyen, E, Hecht, D, Dorotta, I, Nguyen, HB & Chrissian, AA 2015, 'Impact of a 2-Day Critical Care Ultrasound Course during Fellowship Training: A Pilot Study', Critical Care Research and Practice, vol. 2015, pp. 1-8.
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Objectives. Despite the increasing utilization of point-of-care critical care ultrasonography (CCUS), standards establishing competency for its use are lacking. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 2-day CCUS course implementation on ultrasound-naïve critical care medicine (CCM) fellows.Methods. Prospective evaluation of the impact of a two-day CCUS course on eight CCM fellows’ attitudes, proficiency, and use of CCUS. Ultrasound competency on multiple organ systems was assessed including abdominal, pulmonary, vascular, and cardiac systems. Subjects served as self-controls and were assessed just prior to, within 1 week after, and 3 months after the course.Results. There was a significant improvement in CCM fellows’ written test scores, image acquisition ability, and pathologic image interpretation 1 week after the course and it was retained 3 months after the course. Fellows also had self-reported increased confidence and usage of CCUS applications after the course.Conclusions. Implementation of a 2-day critical care ultrasound course covering general CCUS and basic critical care echocardiography using a combination of didactics, live models, and ultrasound simulators is effective in improving critical care fellows’ proficiency and confidence with ultrasound use in both the short- and long-term settings.

Diyaljee, V 2015, 'Discussion of “Behavior of Geocell-Reinforced Subballast Subjected to Cyclic Loading in Plane-Strain Condition” by Buddhima Indraratna, M. Mahdi Biabani, and Sanjay Nimbalkar', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 141, no. 10, pp. 07015027-07015027.
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Dodd, JM, Ahmed, S, Karnon, J, Umberger, W, Deussen, AR, Tran, T, Grivell, RM, Crowther, CA, Turnbull, D, McPhee, AJ, Wittert, G, Owens, JA & Robinson, JS 2015, 'The cost-effectiveness of providing antenatal lifestyle advice for women who are overweight or obese: the LIMIT randomised trial', BMC Obesity, vol. 2, no. 1, p. 14.
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BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity during pregnancy is common, although robust evidence about the economic implications of providing an antenatal dietary and lifestyle intervention for women who are overweight or obese is lacking. We conducted a health economic evaluation in parallel with the LIMIT randomised trial. Women with a singleton pregnancy, between 10(+0)-20(+0) weeks, and BMI ≥25 kg/m(2) were randomised to Lifestyle Advice (a comprehensive antenatal dietary and lifestyle intervention) or Standard Care. The economic evaluation took the perspective of the health care system and its patients, and compared costs encountered from the additional use of resources from time of randomisation until six weeks postpartum. Increments in health outcomes for both the woman and infant were considered in the cost-effectiveness analysis. Mean costs and effects in the treatment groups allocated at randomisation were compared, and incremental cost effectiveness ratios (ICERs) and confidence intervals (95%) calculated. Bootstrapping was used to confirm the estimated confidence intervals, and to generate acceptability curves representing the probability of the intervention being cost-effective at alternative monetary equivalent values for the outcomes avoiding high infant birth weight, and respiratory distress syndrome. Analyses utilised intention to treat principles. RESULTS: Overall, the increase in mean costs associated with providing the intervention was offset by savings associated with improved immediate neonatal outcomes, rendering the intervention cost neutral (Lifestyle Advice Group $11261.19±$14573.97 versus Standard Care Group $11306.70±$14562.02; p=0.094). Using a monetary value of $20,000 as a threshold value for avoiding an additional infant with birth weight above 4 kg, the probability that the antenatal intervention is cost-effective is 0.85, which increases to 0.95 when the threshold monetary value increases to $45,000. CONCLUSIONS: Providing an an...

Dong, H & Hussain, FK 2015, 'Service-requester-centered service selection and ranking model for digital transportation ecosystems', COMPUTING, vol. 97, no. 1, pp. 79-102.
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Transport services are a fundamental utility that drives human society. A Digital Transportation Ecosystem is a sub-system of the Digital Ecosystem, which uses ICT resources to facilitate transport service transactions. This research focuses on the selection and ranking of online transport service information. The previous research in this area has been unable to achieve satisfactory performance or give sufficient freedom to service requesters to rank services based on their preferences. `User-centered design is a broad term to describe how end-users influence system design. In this research, we propose a Service-Requester-Centered Service Selection and Ranking Model, guided by the philosophy of user-centered design. Three major sub-models are involved in this model: a model for assisting service requesters to search appropriate transport service ontology concepts to denote their service requests, a model for enhancing the accuracy of automatic transport service concept recommendation by observing service requesters click behaviours, and a model for enabling service-requester-preference-based service ranking. Implementations and empirical experiments are conducted to evaluate the three sub-models and the drawn conclusions along with directions for future work are outlined.

Dong, Y, Fan, Z-P & Yu, S 2015, 'Consensus Building in a Local Context for the AHP-GDM With the Individual Numerical Scale and Prioritization Method', IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 354-368.
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Dorrell, DG & Salah, A 2015, 'Detection of Rotor Eccentricity in Wound Rotor Induction Machines Using Pole-Specific Search Coils', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, vol. 51, no. 11.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper addresses the need to detect the rotor radial position in an electrical machine. When it is not centered, it is referred to as rotor eccentricity. Cage induction machines can use the detection of sideband currents, and this is studied extensively elsewhere. Wound rotor induction machines do not generate the same sidebands, so an alternative detection method is needed. These machines are now popular generators in wind turbines. A simple method using pole-specific search coils is introduced, and a theory is developed to illustrate that rotor eccentricity leads to the generation of air-gap flux waves with pole-pairs that are pm ± 1. This is tested using search coils in a 4-pole wound rotor machine. The method is found to successfully indicate the presence of rotor eccentricity.

Dovey, K & Rembach, M 2015, 'Invisible practices; innovative outcomes: intrapreneurship within the academy', Action Learning: Research and Practice, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 276-292.
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Across the world, higher education is facing new challenges as governments cut subsidies, new technologies enable ‘massively open’ online courses, students are accessed from global locations, and the centuries-old mission of universities is commercialised. In spite of these profound changes, most institutions of higher education have remained unaltered in terms of how they are structured and governed. Similarly, the consequent commodification of knowledge has not been challenged in general even though the lack of the deep knowledge that underpins competent professional practice is periodically lamented. This paper outlines an experiment in an alternative form of academic programme management; one which is perhaps more appropriate in current times. It describes an initiative at an Australian university where an action-research approach is being used to engage the full spectrum of stakeholders in the governance and execution of the strategic intent of a particular ‘flagship’ postgraduate programme. In this way, it demonstrates how knowing (knowledge manifesting in practice) is achieved through a form of praxis that continuously refines, through interactive ‘creatively abrasive’ forums, the enactment of mission-pertinent practices. However, as an initiative that threatens the political status quo within the university, much of the action, until recently, has had to be conducted ‘invisibly’.

Dragos, J & Wu, C 2015, 'Single-Degree-of-Freedom Approach to Incorporate Axial Load Effects on Pressure Impulse Curves for Steel Columns', Journal of Engineering Mechanics, vol. 141, no. 1, pp. 04014098-04014098.
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© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers. In this paper, the moment-curvature behavior of a steel column under constant axial loading is implemented into a computationally efficient one-dimensional finite-element approach, utilizing Timoshenko beam theory, to determine the dynamic response of steel columns subjected to blasts. Then, a new single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) approach is provided for determining pressure impulse curves for steel columns under constant axial loading. This SDOF approach relies on the newly defined concept of the reduced resistance-deflection function to accurately simulate the PΔ effects and the global instability failure mechanism, which are both caused by the axial load. The aforementioned finite-element approach is then used to thoroughly validate the newly proposed SDOF approach for deriving pressure impulse curves. It is shown that, despite the inherent simplicity of the approach, the newly proposed SDOF approach provides accurate and reliable results.

Du, J, Wang, J, Zhang, T, Bai, D, Guo, YJ & He, Y 2015, 'Demonstration of a Portable HTS MMIC Microwave Receiver Front-End', IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 1-4.
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© 2014 IEEE. We report the first demonstration of a portable HTS monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) receiver front-end module operating on a commercial mini cryocooler. The HTS circuit consists of a step-edge junction mixer and a number of HTS filters fabricated on a single MgO substrate. The HTS MMIC circuit is integrated with the mini cryocooler. The sample vacuum chamber, cold-head, compressor and cooling fans are all packed into one customer-designed portable box of approximately 350 mm × 350 mm × 250 mm in dimension. The HTS Josephson junction-based microwave circuit operated successfully in the cryocooler unshielded without observable performance degradation. The design and implementation of the compact unit and performance evaluation of a HTS MMIC frequency down-converter are presented.

Du, Y, Lu, DD-C, Chu, GML & Xiao, W 2015, 'Closed-Form Solution of Time-Varying Model and Its Applications for Output Current Harmonics in Two-Stage PV Inverter', IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 142-150.
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Duan, N, Xu, W, Wang, S, Zhu, J & Guo, Y 2015, 'A new Preisach type hysteresis model of high temperature superconductors', Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 117, no. 17, pp. 17A718-17A718.
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This paper presents a new Preisach type hysteresis model for the high temperature superconductor. This model requires only the limiting hysteresis loop as the input data, and for this model, the limiting hysteresis loop is first separated into two limiting M−H loops based on the mechanisms, which can then be modeled by two separate modified Preisach algorithms. The area integrations of the Preisach distribution functions are determined only based on the limiting M−H loops. The validity and accuracy of this model is confirmed by comparing the simulation and experiment results of Bi-2223 and YBa2Cu3Ox superconducting tapes with external magnetic fields.

Duan, N, Xu, W, Wang, S, Zhu, J & Guo, Y 2015, 'Hysteresis Modeling of High-Temperature Superconductor Using Simplified Preisach Model', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 1-4.
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Duan, R, Severini, S & Winter, A 2015, 'On zero-error communication via quantum channels in the presence of noiseless feedback', IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. 62, no. 9, pp. 9-5277.
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We initiate the study of zero-error communication via quantum channels whenthe receiver and sender have at their disposal a noiseless feedback channel ofunlimited quantum capacity, generalizing Shannon's zero-error communicationtheory with instantaneous feedback. We first show that this capacity is a function only of the linear span ofChoi-Kraus operators of the channel, which generalizes the bipartiteequivocation graph of a classical channel, and which we dub 'non-commutativebipartite graph'. Then we go on to show that the feedback-assisted capacity isnon-zero (with constant activating noiseless communication) if and only if thenon-commutative bipartite graph is non-trivial, and give a number of equivalentcharacterizations. This result involves a far-reaching extension of the'conclusive exclusion' of quantum states [Pusey/Barrett/Rudolph, Nature Phys.8:475-478]. We then present an upper bound on the feedback-assisted zero-error capacity,motivated by a conjecture originally made by Shannon and proved later byAhlswede. We demonstrate this bound to have many good properties, includingbeing additive and given by a minimax formula. We also prove that this quantityis the entanglement-assisted capacity against an adversarially chosen channelfrom the set of all channels with the same Choi-Kraus span, which can also beinterpreted as the feedback-assisted unambiguous capacity. The proof relies ona generalization of the 'Postselection Lemma' [Christandl/Koenig/Renner, PRL102:020504] that allows to reflect additional constraints, and which we believeto be of independent interest. We illustrate our ideas with a number of examples, includingclassical-quantum channels and Weyl diagonal channels, and close with anextensive discussion of open questions.

Duong, HC, Chivas, AR, Nelemans, B, Duke, M, Gray, S, Cath, TY & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Treatment of RO brine from CSG produced water by spiral-wound air gap membrane distillation — A pilot study', Desalination, vol. 366, pp. 121-129.
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Duong, HC, Cooper, P, Nelemans, B, Cath, TY & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Optimising thermal efficiency of direct contact membrane distillation by brine recycling for small-scale seawater desalination', Desalination, vol. 374, pp. 1-9.
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Duong, HC, Gray, S, Duke, M, Cath, TY & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Scaling control during membrane distillation of coal seam gas reverse osmosis brine', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 493, pp. 673-682.
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Eickelmann, M, Schallow, J, Sousanabady, RJ & Deuse, J 2015, 'Lebenszyklusübergreifende Qualitätsservices', Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, vol. 110, no. 4, pp. 167-171.
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Kurzfassung Moderne Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien ermöglichen die umfassende Speicherung großer Datenmengen, ihre Auswertung wird jedoch oftmals nicht hinreichend fokussiert. Insbesondere für das Qualitätsmanagement ist die effektive Nutzung qualitätsrelevanter Daten zur Entscheidungsunterstützung von höchster Bedeutung. Dieser Beitrag präsentiert einen Ansatz des handhabbaren Datenmanagements sowie der aufwandsarmen Analyse und Prognose qualitätsspezifischer Größen zur Realisierung eines übergreifenden, prädiktiven Qualitätsmanagements.

Eickelmann, M, Wiegand, M, Konrad, B & Deuse, J 2015, 'Die Bedeutung von Data-Mining im Kontext von Industrie 4.0', Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, vol. 110, no. 11, pp. 738-743.
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Kurzfassung Moderne Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien ermöglichen die umfassende Speicherung großer Datenmengen, ihre Auswertung wird jedoch oftmals nicht hinreichend fokussiert. Insbesondere die effektive Nutzung des in den Informationsspeichern vorhandenen Wissens zur prädiktiven Entscheidungs- und Planungsunterstützung ist von höchster Bedeutung. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt am Beispiel drei unterschiedlicher, anwendungsspezifischer Ansätze der Wissensentdeckung die zunehmende Relevanz des Data-Mining im Produktlebenszyklus.

Ekpenyong, UE, Zhang, J & Xia, X 2015, 'How information propagation in social networks can improve energy savings based on time of use tariff', Sustainable Cities and Society, vol. 19, pp. 26-33.
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Elson, KM, Fox, N, Tipper, JL, Kirkham, J, Hall, RM, Fisher, J & Ingham, E 2015, 'Non-destructive monitoring of viability in an ex vivo organ culture model of osteochondral tissue', European Cells and Materials, vol. 29, pp. 356-369.
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Fadavi Boostani, A, Tahamtan, S, Jiang, ZY, Wei, D, Yazdani, S, Azari Khosroshahi, R, Taherzadeh Mousavian, R, Xu, J, Zhang, X & Gong, D 2015, 'Enhanced tensile properties of aluminium matrix composites reinforced with graphene encapsulated SiC nanoparticles', Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, vol. 68, pp. 155-163.
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Fadavi Boostani, A, Yazdani, S, Taherzadeh Mousavian, R, Tahamtan, S, Azari Khosroshahi, R, Wei, D, Brabazon, D, Xu, JZ, Zhang, XM & Jiang, ZY 2015, 'Strengthening mechanisms of graphene sheets in aluminium matrix nanocomposites', Materials & Design, vol. 88, pp. 983-989.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Uniform dispersion of SiC nanoparticles with a high propensity to agglomerate within a thixoformed aluminium matrix was attained using a graphene encapsulating approach. The analytical model devised in this study has demonstrated the significant role of shear lag and thermally activated dislocation mechanisms in strengthening aluminium metal matrix composites due to the exceptional negative thermal expansion coefficient of graphene sheets. This, in turn, triggers the pinning capacity of nano-sized rod-liked aluminium carbide, prompting strong interface bonding for SiC nanoparticles with the matrix, thereby enhancing tensile elongation.

Fan, H, Hussain, FK & Hussain, OK 2015, 'Semantic client-side approach for web personalization of SaaS-based cloud services', CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION-PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 2144-2169.
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Fan, H, Hussain, FK, Younas, M & Hussain, OK 2015, 'An integrated personalization framework for SaaS-based cloud services', Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 53, pp. 157-173.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Software as a Service (SaaS) has recently emerged as one of the most popular service delivery models in cloud computing. The number of SaaS services and their users is continuously increasing and new SaaS service providers emerge on a regular basis. As users are exposed to a wide range of SaaS services, they may soon become more demanding when receiving/consuming such services. Similar to the web and/or mobile applications, personalization can play a critical role in modern SaaS-based cloud services. This paper introduces a fully designed, cloud-enabled personalization framework to facilitate the collection of preferences and the delivery of corresponding SaaS services. The approach we adapt in the design and development of the proposed framework is to synthesize various models and techniques in a novel way. The objective is to provide an integrated and structured environment wherein SaaS services can be provisioned with enhanced personalization quality and performance.

Fan, X & Cao, L 2015, 'A convergence theorem for graph shift-type algorithms', Pattern Recognition, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 2751-2760.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract The Robust Graph mode seeking by Graph Shift (Liu and Yan, 2010) (RGGS) algorithm represents a recent promising approach for discovering dense subgraphs in noisy data. However, there are no theoretical foundations for proving the convergence of the RGGS algorithm, leaving the question as to whether an algorithm works for solid reasons. In this paper, we propose a generic theoretical framework consisting of three key Graph Shift (GS) components: the simplex of a generated sequence set, the monotonic and continuous objective function and closed mapping. We prove that the GS-type algorithms built on such components can be transformed to fit Zangwill's theory, and the sequence set generated by the GS procedures always terminates at a local maximum, or at worst, contains a subsequence which converges to a local maximum of the similarity measure function. The framework is verified by theoretical analysis and experimental results of several typical GS-type algorithms.

Fan, X, Cao, L & Da Xu, RY 2015, 'Dynamic Infinite Mixed-Membership Stochastic Blockmodel', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 26, no. 9, pp. 2072-2085.
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© 2014 IEEE. Directional and pairwise measurements are often used to model interactions in a social network setting. The mixed-membership stochastic blockmodel (MMSB) was a seminal work in this area, and its ability has been extended. However, models such as MMSB face particular challenges in modeling dynamic networks, for example, with the unknown number of communities. Accordingly, this paper proposes a dynamic infinite mixed-membership stochastic blockmodel, a generalized framework that extends the existing work to potentially infinite communities inside a network in dynamic settings (i.e., networks are observed over time). Additional model parameters are introduced to reflect the degree of persistence among one's memberships at consecutive time stamps. Under this framework, two specific models, namely mixture time variant and mixture time invariant models, are proposed to depict two different time correlation structures. Two effective posterior sampling strategies and their results are presented, respectively, using synthetic and real-world data.

Fang, J, Gao, Y, Sun, G, Qiu, N & Li, Q 2015, 'On design of multi-cell tubes under axial and oblique impact loads', Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 95, pp. 115-126.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Multi-cell tubes have been drawn increasing attention for their excellent energy-absorbing ability. However, the effect of cell number and oblique loads on crashing behaviors has seldom been studied to date. In this paper, a group of multi-cell tubes with different cell numbers were comprehensively investigated under both axial and oblique loads. The finite element models were first established and then validated by experimental tests. The simulation results showed that the increase in cell number can be beneficial to the energy absorption (EA) but detrimental due to increase in peak force (Fmax) under axial load. When the oblique loads were taken into account, the tubes could undergo global bending, which is an inefficient deformation mode. By applying complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) method, the 7 × 7 tube was selected as the best based on multi-criteria under multiple loading angles. Then the Kriging modeling technique and multiobjective particle optimization (MOPSO) algorithm were integrated to address the optimization problems, where EA and Fmax were taken as objectives and tube sizes as design variables. The results demonstrated that different loading angles have different requirements on cell allocation and optimizations of multiple load cases (MLC) can yield better solutions in a weighted average fashion, whereas the optimization for separate single load cases (SLC) could result in inferior performance under other load cases.

Fang, J, Gao, Y, Sun, G, Xu, C & Li, Q 2015, 'Multiobjective robust design optimization of fatigue life for a truck cab', Reliability Engineering & System Safety, vol. 135, pp. 1-8.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Structural optimization for vehicle fatigue durability signifies an exciting topic of research to improve its long-term safety and performance with minimum cost. Nevertheless, majority of the existing studies has been dealing with deterministic optimization and has not involved uncertainties, which could lead to an unstable or even useless design in practice. In order to simultaneously enhance the performance and robustness of the fatigue life for a truck cab, a multiobjective optimization is proposed in this study. After validating the simulation model, different dual surrogate modeling (DSM) methods are attempted to overcome the limitation of classical dual response surface (DRS) method; and subsequently the most accurate model, namely dual Kriging (DKRG) in this case, is selected through a comparative study. Then, the multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm is adopted to perform the optimization. Compared with traditional single objective optimization strategies which yield only one specific optimum, MOPSO allows producing a set of non-dominated solutions over the entire Pareto space for a non-convex problem, which provides designers with more insightful information. Finally, a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model, which integrates the techniques of order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) with grey relation analysis (GRA), is implemented to find a best compromise optimum from the Pareto set. The selected optimum demonstrated not only to improve the fatigue life of the truck cab, but also to enable the design less sensitive to presence of uncertainties.

Fang, J, Gao, Y, Sun, G, Xu, C, Zhang, Y & Li, Q 2015, 'Optimization of Spot-Welded Joints Combined Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm with Sequential Kriging Optimization', Advances in Mechanical Engineering, vol. 6, no. 0, pp. 573694-573694.
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© 2014 Jianguang Fang et al. Generally, spot-welded joints are the weakest parts of structures leading to fatigue failure under fluctuating loads. Therefore, it is important to optimize the spot weld to improve the fatigue life. However, a classical optimization of the spot weld often directly couples finite element analysis (FEA) with optimization algorithm, which may fall into a local optimum or be expensive computationally. In this study, a metamodel-based optimization procedure is proposed to find the optimum locations of spot-welded joints for maximum fatigue life. Based on the initial training points, Kriging model is implemented to approximate the objective function regarding the design variables (i.e., locations of spot welds). To further overcome the defect of traditional Kriging model and improve the accuracy of optimum results, the sequential Kriging optimization (SKO) is utilized, where the Kriging model is updated iteratively by adding new training points to the training dataset till the global optimum is obtained. The optimization is run using artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm and the results show that our proposed method is able to improve the performance of the spot-welded joint. More importantly, more competent optimum can be found and the optimization can be executed more efficiently, compared to the conventional methods.

Fang, J, Gao, Y, Sun, G, Zheng, G & Li, Q 2015, 'Dynamic crashing behavior of new extrudable multi-cell tubes with a functionally graded thickness', International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, vol. 103, pp. 63-73.
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© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Multi-cell structures have been extensively studied for their outstanding performance as potential energy absorbers. Unlike existing multi-cell tubes with a uniform thickness (UT), this paper introduces a functionally graded thickness (FGT) to multi-cell tubes under dynamic impact, which can be fabricated by an extrusion process. A numerical model is first established using the nonlinear finite element analysis code LS-DYNA and validated with experimental data. Based on a numerical study, the thickness gradient parameters in different regions have considerable effects on the crashworthiness of the FGT multi-cell tubes. Moreover, the FGT multi-cell tubes are able to absorb more energy while yielding a similar level of peak impact force to the UT multi-cell tubes. Finally, multiobjective optimizations of the UT and FGT multi-cell tubes are then performed to determine the optimal gradient parameters that simultaneously improve the specific energy absorption (SEA) and reduce the maximum impact force. In these optimizations, the multiobjective particle optimization (MOPSO) algorithm and response surface (RS) surrogate modeling technique are adopted. The optimization results demonstrate that the FGT multi-cell tubes produce more competent Pareto solutions than the conventional UT counterparts; similar gradients in the outer walls and stronger internal ribs are recommended for the FGT multi-cell tubes because of their improved interactions.

Fang, Z, Jiang, Z, Wang, X, Zhou, C, Wei, D & Liu, X 2015, 'Grain size effect of thickness/average grain size on mechanical behaviour, fracture mechanism and constitutive model for phosphor bronze foil', The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 79, no. 9-12, pp. 1905-1914.
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© 2015, Springer-Verlag London. Size effects play a significant role in microforming process, and any dimensional change can have a great impact on materials’ mechanical properties. In this paper, the size effects on deformation behaviour and fracture of phosphor foil were investigated in the form of grain size effect: the ratio of materials’ thickness (T) to average grain size (D) by micro tensile tests. The ratio was designed to be closed to but larger than, less than and equal to 1, respectively. The results show that the amount of plastic deformation decreases with the decrease of the ratio of T/D, which indicates that the grain size plays a significant role and grain deformation modes differ when the ratio changes. It is also found that their fractograph reflects different features in terms of micro-dimples and cleavage planes, further demonstrating that when T/D >1, its materials have a tendency to fracture ductilely, while materials would like to conduct brittle fracture when T/D <1. So the ratio of T/D which is close to 1 can be regarded as the divide of ductile fracture and brittle fracture. For T/D <1, a new constitutive model is proposed based on the classic composite model. The model’s results are compared with the experimental ones and the efficiency of the developed models is verified.

Fang, Z, Jiang, Z, Wei, D & Liu, X 2015, 'Study on springback in micro V-bending with consideration of grain heterogeneity', The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, vol. 78, no. 5-8, pp. 1075-1085.
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© 2014, Springer-Verlag London. With the new development of microforming technology, the demand on the accuracy of the metallic microcomponents is elevating. Springback phenomenon is inevitable during sheet metal forming process and can cause unpredicted dimensional error. The previous research found that the springback value in microforming is difficult to be assessed as the sizes of tools and specimens downsize hundreds even thousands times. This paper focuses on improving the prediction accuracy of springback during micro V-bending. A finite element (FE) model of the micro V-bending has been established via ABAQUS/Standard commercial software where the specimen’s microstructure is represented by Voronoi tessellations. With the consideration of the grain heterogeneity, each Voronoi tessellation has been employed with different grain mechanical properties based on experimental results. Corresponding micro V-bending tests have been carried out, and a good agreement between the experimental and simulation results indicates that the developed FE model can accurately predict springback in micro V-bending.

Fariha, A, Ahmed, CF, Leung, CK, Samiullah, M, Pervin, S & Cao, L 2015, 'A new framework for mining frequent interaction patterns from meeting databases', Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 45, pp. 103-118.
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Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2015, 'Influence of Chemical Stabilisation on Permeability of Municipal Solid Wastes', Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 455-466.
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© 2014, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. There are a number of important challenges in redevelopment of closed landfill sites including high permeation, complexity in settlement behaviour, weak shear strength, gas emission as well as health and safety issues. This paper is a part of a thorough experimental study on chemically stabilised old landfill sites. The decomposed waste materials were collected from Bankstown landfill located in the south-west of Sydney. The samples were prepared by mixing MSW, with a mixture of fly ash–quicklime with a ratio of 3:1 in percentages of 5, 10, 15 and 20 of fly ash by dry weight of the MSW. Permeability of treated and untreated MSW samples has been estimated during consolidation of MSW specimens in an automated triaxial cell. According to the results, increasing the content of fly ash–quicklime in the MSW specimen reduced the coefficient of permeability, the coefficient of consolidation and the permeability change index (Ck). The coefficient of permeability for an untreated specimen was 6.2 × 10−8 m/s and this figure was reduced to 3.2 × 10−8 m/s in specimens mixed with 26 % fly ash–quicklime (under an average confining pressure of 250 kPa). Increasing the effective confining pressure up to the pre-consolidation pressure caused no significant change in the coefficient of permeability. However at higher pressures the reduction was tangible. It is found that the chemical stabilisation effectively reduces the permeability of the MSW layer. This reduction in the coefficient of permeability can be attributed to a reduction in the bleed channels and void spaces due to the conversion of soluble calcium hydroxide to cementitious compounds. It will be beneficial and effective in redevelopment of closed landfill sites incorporating chemical treatments. The outcomes of this study may facilitate the hydraulic properties of chemically treated closed landfill sites.

Fauzi, H, Metselaar, HSC, Mahlia, TMI, Silakhori, M & Ong, HC 2015, 'Thermal characteristic reliability of fatty acid binary mixtures as phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage applications', Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 80, pp. 127-131.
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Feng, L, Ong, Y-S, Lim, M-H & Tsang, IW 2015, 'Memetic Search With Interdomain Learning: A Realization Between CVRP and CARP', IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 644-658.
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© 1997-2012 IEEE. In recent decades, a plethora of dedicated evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been crafted to solve domain-specific complex problems more efficiently. Many advanced EAs have relied on the incorporation of domain-specific knowledge as inductive biases that is deemed to fit the problem of interest well. As such, the embedment of domain knowledge about the underlying problem within the search algorithms is becoming an established mode of enhancing evolutionary search performance. In this paper, we present a study on evolutionary memetic computing paradigm that is capable of learning and evolving knowledge meme that traverses different but related problem domains, for greater search efficiency. Focusing on combinatorial optimization as the area of study, a realization of the proposed approach is investigated on two NP-hard problem domains (i.e., capacitated vehicle routing problem and capacitated arc routing problem). Empirical studies on well-established routing problems and their respective state-of-the-art optimization solvers are presented to study the potential benefits of leveraging knowledge memes that are learned from different but related problem domains on future evolutionary search.

Feng, L, Ong, Y-S, Tan, A-H & Tsang, IW 2015, 'Memes as building blocks: a case study on evolutionary optimization + transfer learning for routing problems', Memetic Computing, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 159-180.
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Ferrie, C & Blume-Kohout, R 2015, 'Minimax quantum tomography: the ultimate bounds on accuracy', Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 116, no. 9, p. 090407.
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A minimax estimator has the minimum possible error ('risk') in the worstcase. We construct the first minimax estimators for quantum state tomographywith relative entropy risk. The minimax risk of non-adaptive tomography scalesas $O(1/\sqrt{N})$, in contrast to that of classical probability estimationwhich is $O(1/N)$. We trace this deficiency to sampling mismatch: futureobservations that determine risk may come from a different sample space thanthe past data that determine the estimate. This makes minimax estimators verybiased, and we propose a computationally tractable alternative with similarbehavior in the worst case, but superior accuracy on most states.

Fitch, R, Sukkarieh, S, Bergerman, M & van Henten, E 2015, '2015 IEEE RAS Summer School on Agricultural Robotics', IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 96-98.
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Agricultural robotics is an area of growing interest with the potential to bring about profound economic and social benefits. Interest in this area is motivated by the need to improve the industries and processes that feed the planet. Autonomous systems are currently being developed for tasks such as pruning, thinning, harvesting, mowing, targeted spraying, nonchemical weed control, and high-resolution crop surveillance. A new cohort of people in agriculture will develop, commercialize, and operate such systems. Social events played an important part in the success of the school. On the first day, participants introduced themselves via a lightning round that consisted of a rapid sequence of single-slide, 60-s presentations. A participant poster session followed, promoting informal discussion in a semistructured environment.

Fournier-Viger, P, Wu, C-W, Tseng, VS, Cao, L & Nkambou, R 2015, 'Mining Partially-Ordered Sequential Rules Common to Multiple Sequences', IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 2203-2216.
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Frati, F, Gaspers, S, Gudmundsson, J & Mathieson, L 2015, 'Augmenting Graphs to Minimize the Diameter', Algorithmica, vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 995-1010.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. We study the problem of augmenting a weighted graph by inserting edges of bounded total cost while minimizing the diameter of the augmented graph. Our main result is an FPT $$4$$4-approximation algorithm for the problem.

Friesen, M, Hamed, A, Lee, T & Oliver Theis, D 2015, 'Fooling-sets and rank', European Journal of Combinatorics, vol. 48, pp. 143-153.
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Fu, Q, McKenzie, TG, Tan, S, Nam, E & Qiao, GG 2015, 'Tertiary amine catalyzed photo-induced controlled radical polymerization of methacrylates', Polymer Chemistry, vol. 6, no. 30, pp. 5362-5368.
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A novel tertiary amine catalyst and trithiocarbonate synergistic photo-induced controlled radical polymerization of methacrylates has been realized under mild UV irradiation, yielding polymethacrylates with low molecular weight distributions and excellent end-group fidelity.

Fu, Q, Xu, J, Ladewig, K, Henderson, TMA & Qiao, GG 2015, 'Degradable cross-linked polymer vesicles for the efficient delivery of platinum drugs', Polymer Chemistry, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 35-43.
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Nontoxic and acid-degradable polymer vesicles were synthesized as drug carriers. In vitro dose–response cytotoxicity studies suggested that the drug-loaded polymer vesicles were more efficient in delivering cis-platin into cancer cells compared to the internalization of the free drug.

Fujioka, T & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Fouling control of a ceramic microfiltration membrane for direct sewer mining by backwashing with ozonated water', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 142, pp. 268-273.
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Fujioka, T, Khan, SJ, McDonald, JA & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Rejection of trace organic chemicals by a hollow fibre cellulose triacetate reverse osmosis membrane', Desalination, vol. 368, pp. 69-75.
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Fujioka, T, Khan, SJ, McDonald, JA & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Rejection of trace organic chemicals by a nanofiltration membrane: the role of molecular properties and effects of caustic cleaning', Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 846-854.
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The aim of this study was to provide further insights to the rejection mechanisms of trace organic chemicals (TrOCs) by nanofiltration (NF).

Fujioka, T, Khan, SJ, McDonald, JA & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Validating the rejection of trace organic chemicals by reverse osmosis membranes using a pilot-scale system', Desalination, vol. 358, pp. 18-26.
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Fujioka, T, Oshima, N, Suzuki, R, Higgins, M, Price, WE, Henderson, RK & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Effect of heat treatment on fouling resistance and the rejection of small and neutral solutes by reverse osmosis membranes', Water Supply, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 510-516.
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The effects of heat treatment on membrane fouling resistance and the rejection of small and neutral solutes by reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were elucidated. RO membrane modification by heat treatment reduced fouling and improved boron rejection. However, heat treatment also caused a decrease in the water permeability of RO membranes. Significant improvement on fouling resistance by heat treatment was observed when RO concentrate was used to simulate a feed solution with high fouling propensity. The improved fouling resistance is likely to be due to changes in the hydrophobic interaction between the membrane surface and foulants. Boron rejection by the ESPA2 membrane was enhanced by heat treatment from 26 to 68% (when evaluated at the permeate flux of 20 L/m2 h). Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy revealed that heat treatment did not significantly influence the free-volume hole-radius of the membrane active skin layer. The results reported in this study suggested that changes in the other membrane properties such as free-volume fraction and thickness may be the main cause improving boron rejection.

Fujioka, T, Oshima, N, Suzuki, R, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Probing the internal structure of reverse osmosis membranes by positron annihilation spectroscopy: Gaining more insight into the transport of water and small solutes', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 486, pp. 106-118.
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Gallego-Ortega, D, Ledger, A, Roden, DL, Law, AMK, Magenau, A, Kikhtyak, Z, Cho, C, Allerdice, SL, Lee, HJ, Valdes-Mora, F, Herrmann, D, Salomon, R, Young, AIJ, Lee, BY, Sergio, CM, Kaplan, W, Piggin, C, Conway, JRW, Rabinovich, B, Millar, EKA, Oakes, SR, Chtanova, T, Swarbrick, A, Naylor, MJ, O’Toole, S, Green, AR, Timpson, P, Gee, JMW, Ellis, IO, Clark, SJ & Ormandy, CJ 2015, 'ELF5 Drives Lung Metastasis in Luminal Breast Cancer through Recruitment of Gr1+ CD11b+ Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells', PLOS Biology, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. e1002330-e1002330.
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Galloux, J, Chekli, L, Phuntsho, S, Tijing, LD, Jeong, S, Zhao, YX, Gao, BY, Park, SH & Shon, HK 2015, 'Coagulation performance and floc characteristics of polytitanium tetrachloride and titanium tetrachloride compared with ferric chloride for coal mining wastewater treatment', SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 152, pp. 94-100.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Abstract The production and discharge of large volumes of wastewater during coal mining activities are one of the major environmental issues in Australia. Therefore, it is crucial to develop and optimise effective treatment processes for the safe disposal of coal mining wastewater (CMWW). In this study, we investigated the performance of a recently developed polytitanium tetrachloride (PTC) coagulant and compared with the performance of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and the commonly used ferric chloride (FeCl3) coagulant for the treatment of CMWW from one of the coal mining sites in Australia. The use of Ti-based coagulants is particularly attractive for the CMWW treatment due to the advantage of being able to recycle the sludge to produce functional titanium dioxide (TiO2) photocatalyst; unlike the flocs formed using conventional coagulants, which need to be disposed in landfill sites. The results showed that both PTC and TiCl4 performed better than FeCl3 in terms of turbidity, UV254 and inorganic compounds (e.g. aluminium, copper or zinc) removal, however, PTC performed poorly in terms of dissolved organic carbon removal (i.e. less than 10%). While charge neutralisation and bridging adsorption were the main coagulation mechanisms identified for TiCl4 treatment; sweep coagulation and bridging adsorption seemed to play a more important role for both PTC and FeCl3 treatments. The flocs formed by PTC coagulation achieved the largest floc size of around 900 μm with the highest floc growth rate. Both Ti-based coagulants (i.e., PTC and TiCl4) showed higher strength factor than FeCl3, while TiCl4 coagulant yielded the flocs with the highest recovery factor. This study indicates that Ti-based coagulants are effective and promising coagulants for the treatment of CMWW.

GANDOMI, AH & ALAVI, AH 2015, 'AN INTRODUCTION OF KRILL HERD ALGORITHM FOR ENGINEERING OPTIMIZATION', JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 302-310.
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A new metaheuristic optimization algorithm, called Krill Herd (KH), has been recently proposed by Gandomi and Alavi (2012). In this study, KH is introduced for solving engineering optimization problems. For more verification, KH is applied to six design problems reported in the literature. Further, the performance of the KH algorithm is com­pared with that of various algorithms representative of the state-of-the-art in the area. The comparisons show that the results obtained by KH are better than the best solutions obtained by the existing methods.

Gandomi, AH & Yun, GJ 2015, 'Coupled SelfSim and genetic programming for non-linear material constitutive modelling', Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 1101-1119.
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In the present study, an improved SelfSim is combined with a recent genetic programming technique called linear GP (LGP) for the inverse extraction of non-linear material behaviour. The SelfSim prepares a comprehensive database including stresses and strains of the structural elements. Then, a steady-state LGP is used to formulate the strain–stress relationship. In this research, a space truss with a reference material model is used as a hypothetical structure. The derived LGP-based formula is very simple and can be employed for design and pre-design purposes. The implementation of LGP-based model is also tested in a general purpose finite element programme. Since the proposed model is an explicit formula, its implementation becomes standard and practically useful. The results show that the procedure is reliable and can be used to derive and formulate the non-linear constitutive material models with a high degree of accuracy.

Gandomi, AH, Kashani, AR, Mousavi, M & Jalalvandi, M 2015, 'Slope stability analyzing using recent swarm intelligence techniques', International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 295-309.
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SummarySlope stability analysis of soil with a weak layer sandwiched between two strong layers is considered as a complex geotechnical problem. In this problem, the objective function is non‐convex and discontinuous with the presence of multiple strong local minima. Classical optimization techniques fail to converge to a valid solution unless a proper initial trial is adopted. Even though many new optimization algorithms have emerged, they have not been applied to geotechnical problems yet. In the present study, some recent swarm intelligence algorithms are adopted for some complicated example of slope stability problems and benchmarked with the traditional particle swarm optimization algorithm. From the results, it seems the levy flight krill herd algorithm is the most efficient method over proposed algorithms for this kind of problem. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Gandomi, AH, Kashani, AR, Roke, DA & Mousavi, M 2015, 'Optimization of retaining wall design using recent swarm intelligence techniques', Engineering Structures, vol. 103, pp. 72-84.
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In this paper, cantilever retaining wall design is studied as an important optimization task in civil engineering. The current study explores the efficiency of some recent swarm intelligence techniques: accelerated particle swarm optimization (APSO), firefly algorithm (FA), and cuckoo search (CS). These algorithms are verified using two benchmark case studies. In order to better determine the proficiency of the utilized algorithms, they are benchmarked with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, a classical swarm intelligence algorithm. To that end, a code is developed to model retaining wall design based on the ACI 318-05 procedure. In this study, continuous variables are used for wall geometry and discrete variables are used for steel reinforcement to optimize the structural design. Moreover, the sensitivity of the proposed algorithms to surcharge load, base soil friction angle, and backfill slope are investigated with respect to the geometry and design parameters. Though CS and PSO reached nearly identical lowest cost and lowest weight designs of the wall under two case studies, CS has lower values for standard deviation, mean, and worst design, and therefore may be a better optimization algorithm for engineering design.

Gao, F, Musial, K, Cooper, C & Tsoka, S 2015, 'Link Prediction Methods and Their Accuracy for Different Social Networks and Network Metrics', Scientific Programming, vol. 2015, pp. 1-13.
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Currently, we are experiencing a rapid growth of the number of social-based online systems. The availability of the vast amounts of data gathered in those systems brings new challenges that we face when trying to analyse it. One of the intensively researched topics is theprediction of social connections between users. Although a lot of effort has been made to develop new prediction approaches, the existing methods are not comprehensively analysed. In this paper we investigate the correlation between network metrics and accuracy of different prediction methods. We selected six time-stamped real-world social networks and ten most widely used link prediction methods. The results of the experiments show that the performance of some methods has a strong correlation with certain network metrics. We managed to distinguish “prediction friendly” networks, for which most of the prediction methods give good performance, as well as “prediction unfriendly” networks, for which most of the methods result in high prediction error. Correlation analysis between network metrics and prediction accuracy of prediction methods may form the basis of a metalearning system where based on network characteristics it will be able to recommend the right prediction method for a given network.

Gao, S, Chamberlain, NF & Guo, YJ 2015, 'Guest Editorial Antennas for Satellite Communications', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 1186-1190.
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© 1963-2012 IEEE. The objective of this special issue is to bring together the most updated research contributions addressing antennas for satellite communications (both spaceborne and user terminals), and propose new applications, solutions, and challenges for the future.

Gao, T, Wang, XC, Chen, R, Ngo, HH & Guo, W 2015, 'Disability adjusted life year (DALY): A useful tool for quantitative assessment of environmental pollution', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 511, pp. 268-287.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Disability adjusted life year (DALY) has been widely used since 1990s for evaluating global and/or regional burden of diseases. As many environmental pollutants are hazardous to human health, DALY is also recognized as an indicator to quantify the health impact of environmental pollution related to disease burden. Based on literature reviews, this article aims to give an overview of the applicable methodologies and research directions for using DALY as a tool for quantitative assessment of environmental pollution. With an introduction of the methodological framework of DALY, the requirements on data collection and manipulation for quantifying disease burdens are summarized. Regarding environmental pollutants hazardous to human beings, health effect/risk evaluation is indispensable for transforming pollution data into disease data through exposure and dose-response analyses which need careful selection of models and determination of parameters. Following the methodological discussions, real cases are analyzed with attention paid to chemical pollutants and pathogens usually encountered in environmental pollution. It can be seen from existing studies that DALY is advantageous over conventional environmental impact assessment for quantification and comparison of the risks resulted from environmental pollution. However, further studies are still required to standardize the methods of health effect evaluation regarding varied pollutants under varied circumstances before DALY calculation.

Gao, X, Jiang, Z, Wei, D & Kosasih, B 2015, 'Effect of thermomechanical treatment on sliding wear of high-Cr cast iron with large plastic deformation', Tribology International, vol. 92, pp. 117-125.
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Garcia, JA & Felix Navarro, K 2015, 'StepKinnection: A Fall Prevention Game Mindfully Designed for the Elderly.', Stud Health Technol Inform, vol. 214, pp. 43-49.
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This paper presents the StepKinnection game, a Kinect-driven stepping game for the elderly that delivers stepping exercises to train specific cognitive and physical abilities associated with falls. This system combines a set of suitable age-related features, meaningful exercise routines and an embedded clinical test for fall risk assessment. The combination of these three aspects makes the game potentially useful in practice as the game is appealing to the elderly cohort, trains one of the most important abilities to prevent falls and at the same time allows for a continuous assessment of health outcomes; characteristics not available in the literature nor in current commercial games.

Gay, V & Leijdekkers, P 2015, 'Bringing Health and Fitness Data Together for Connected Health Care: Mobile Apps as Enablers of Interoperability', JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INTERNET RESEARCH, vol. 17, no. 11.
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Background: A transformation is underway regarding how we deal with our health. Mobile devices make it possible to have continuous access to personal health information. Wearable devices, such as Fitbit and Apple’s smartwatch, can collect data continuously and provide insights into our health and fitness. However, lack of interoperability and the presence of data silos prevent users and health professionals from getting an integrated view of health and fitness data. To provide better health outcomes, a complete picture is needed which combines informal health and fitness data collected by the user together with official health records collected by health professionals. Mobile apps are well positioned to play an important role in the aggregation since they can tap into these official and informal health and data silos. Objective: The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that a mobile app can be used to aggregate health and fitness data and can enable interoperability. It discusses various technical interoperability challenges encountered while integrating data into one place. Methods: For 8 years, we have worked with third-party partners, including wearable device manufacturers, electronic health record providers, and app developers, to connect an Android app to their (wearable) devices, back-end servers, and systems. Results: The result of this research is a health and fitness app called myFitnessCompanion, which enables users to aggregate their data in one place. Over 6000 users use the app worldwide to aggregate their health and fitness data. It demonstrates that mobile apps can be used to enable interoperability. Challenges encountered in the research process included the different wireless protocols and standards used to communicate with wireless devices, the diversity of security and authorization protocols used to be able to exchange data with servers, and lack of standards usage, such as Health Level Seven, for medical information exchange. Conclusion...

Gefferth, A, Molnár, S & Veitch, D 2015, 'Discrete Self-Similarity'.

Gentile, C, Chuang, CY, Drake, CJ & Davies, MJ 2015, 'Abstract 310: Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase-mediated Regulation of Cardiomyocyte Proliferation During Development in Humans and Mice', Circulation Research, vol. 117, no. suppl_1.
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Our previous studies in early mouse embryonic development (E8.2) showing that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) are expressed in embryonic endothelial cells, but not in embryonic cardiomyocytes, together with the findings by others indicating that NO is required for cardiomyocyte proliferation in mice, led us to investigate the relevancy of the VEGF/eNOS signaling pathway during cardiovascular development. First, wild type and NOS3 knockout mouse embryos between E8.0 and E17.0 were stained with antibodies against smooth muscle α-actin, phospho-histone H3 (PH3), VEGFR2 and PECAM, markers of cardiomyocytes, proliferating, progenitor and endothelial cells, respectively. Our confocal analysis showed hearts of E8.0 NOS3 nulls develop normally. However, E8.5 and E9.5 NOS3 nulls have reduced cardiomyocyte proliferation and impaired heart development. As consequence, hearts of E17 NOS3 nulls were approximately 20% smaller compared to wildtype hearts. To translate our findings to humans, we stained human heart specimens with antibodies against VEGFR2, eNOS, PH3 and sarcomeric α-actinin. Confocal analyses showed for the first time that VEGFR2 is highly expressed in the perinuclear region of human cardiomyocytes of a young donor. They also showed a correlation between eNOS expression and cardiomyocyte proliferation in humans. Consequently, we developed an in vitro three-dimensional co-culture model of human endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts: “human cardiac tissue spheroids” (HCTSs). Our data showed that laminin and collagen type IV synthesis is increased in VEGF-treated HCTSs generated using CMs from an older donor compared to untreated cultures, suggesting a role for VEGF and eNOS in postnatal human heart development. In conclusion, our data showed that VEGF and eNOS play a similar role in mediating cardiomyocytes proliferation and heart regeneration in both mice and humans. Current stud...

Gentile, C, Chuang, CY, Drake, CJ & Davies, MJ 2015, 'The VEGF/eNOS Signaling Pathway Plays a Critical Role in Mouse and Human Cardiomyocyte Proliferation', Free Radical Biology and Medicine, vol. 87, pp. S50-S50.
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George, L, Gargiulo, GD, Lehmann, T & Hamilton, TJ 2015, 'Concept Design for a 1-Lead Wearable/Implantable ECG Front-End: Power Management', Sensors, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 29297-29315.
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Power supply quality and stability are critical for wearable and implantable biomedical applications. For this reason we have designed a reconfigurable switched-capacitor DC-DC converter that, aside from having an extremely small footprint (with an active on-chip area of only 0.04 mm2), uses a novel output voltage control method based upon a combination of adaptive gain and discrete frequency scaling control schemes. This novel DC-DC converter achieves a measured output voltage range of 1.0 to 2.2 V with power delivery up to 7.5 mW with 75% efficiency. In this paper, we present the use of this converter as a power supply for a concept design of a wearable (15 mm × 15 mm) 1-lead ECG front-end sensor device that simultaneously harvests power and communicates with external receivers when exposed to a suitable RF field. Due to voltage range limitations of the fabrication process of the current prototype chip, we focus our analysis solely on the power supply of the ECG front-end whose design is also detailed in this paper. Measurement results show not just that the power supplied is regulated, clean and does not infringe upon the ECG bandwidth, but that there is negligible difference between signals acquired using standard linear power-supplies and when the power is regulated by our power management chip.

Ghias, AMYM, Pou, J, Capella, GJ, Agelidis, VG, Aguilera, RP & Meynard, T 2015, 'Single-Carrier Phase-Disposition PWM Implementation for Multilevel Flying Capacitor Converters', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 30, no. 10, pp. 5376-5380.
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© 2015 IEEE. This letter proposes a new implementation of phase-disposition pulse-width modulation (PD-PWM) for multilevel flying capacitor (FC) converters using a single triangular carrier. The proposed implementation is much simpler than conventional PD-PWM techniques based on multiple trapezoidal-shaped carriers, generates the same results as far as natural capacitor voltage balance is concerned and offers better quality line-to-line voltages when compared to phase-shifted PWM. The proposed algorithm is based on reshaping the reference signal to fit within the range of a single carrier and assigning each crossing of the reference signal with the carrier to a particular pair of switches at any time. The proposed algorithm is suitable for digital implementation taking maximum benefit from the PWM units available in the processor. Simulation and experimental results are presented from the five-level FC converter to verify the proposed PD-PWM implementation.

Ghobadi, Y, Pradhan, B, Sayyad, GA, Kabiri, K & Falamarzi, Y 2015, 'Simulation of hydrological processes and effects of engineering projects on the Karkheh River Basin and its wetland using SWAT2009', Quaternary International, vol. 374, pp. 144-153.
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Ghobadi, Y, Pradhan, B, Shafri, HZM & Kabiri, K 2015, 'Assessment of spatial relationship between land surface temperature and landuse/cover retrieval from multi-temporal remote sensing data in South Karkheh Sub-basin, Iran', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 525-537.
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Ghobadi, Y, Pradhan, B, Shafri, HZM, bin Ahmad, N & Kabiri, K 2015, 'Spatio-temporal remotely sensed data for analysis of the shrinkage and shifting in the Al Hawizeh wetland', Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, vol. 187, no. 1, p. 4156.
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Ghosh, S & Li, J 2015, 'Using sequential patterns as features for classification models to make accurate predictions on ICU events.', Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc, vol. 2015, pp. 8157-8160.
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Pattern mining algorithms have previously been utilized to extract informative rules in various clinical contexts. However, the number of generated patterns are numerous. In most cases, the extracted rules are directly investigated by clinicians for understanding disease diagnoses. The elicitation of important patterns for clinical investigation places a significant demand for precision and interpretability. Hence, it is essential to obtain a set of informative interpretable patterns for building advanced learning models about a patient's physiological condition, specially in critical care units. In this study, a two stage sequential contrast patterns based classification framework is presented, which is used to detect critical patient events like hypotension. In the first stage, we obtain a set of sequential patterns by using a contrast mining algorithm. These sequential patterns undergo post-processing, for conversion to binary valued and frequency based features for developing a classification model, in the second stage. Our results on eight critical care datasets demonstrate better predictive capabilities, when sequential patterns are used as features.

Gill, A, Bunker, D & Seltsikas, P 2015, 'Moving Forward: Emerging Themes in Financial Services Technologies’ Adoption', Communications of the Association for Information Systems, vol. 36, pp. 205-230.
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© 2015 by the Association for Information Systems. Financial services technologies (FST) are core to the continuous transformation of financial services organizations (FSO). To date, however, there has been a lack of empirical research into FST adoption against the backdrop of the recent financial crisis. In this paper, we re-examine how FSO are currently positioned to take advantage of emerging FST. Note that, in this paper, we look forward rather than provide a commentary on the state of the art in technology adoption research. We conducted this research by applying an exploratory qualitative study method: we analyzed interview transcripts from thirty recent interviews of FSO technology executives and CIOs by using a thematic network analysis tool. This analysis uncovered nineteen basic, eight organizing, and two global FST adoption research themes along with their links to FST adoption objectives, challenges, customer centricity, human resources, outsourcing, and overall IT strategy maintenance. This research has both practical and theoretical research implications and serves as a resource base for FSO and researchers to set future research priorities and directions. We intend for the emerging themes that we present in this paper to facilitate research directions by shedding light on the areas of greatest value and potential return in FST adoption.

Gill, AQ 2015, 'Agile enterprise architecture modelling: Evaluating the applicability and integration of six modelling standards.', Inf. Softw. Technol., vol. 67, pp. 196-206.
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Gill, AQ 2015, 'Distributed Agile Development: Applying a Coverage Analysis Approach to the Evaluation of a Communication Technology Assessment Tool.', Int. J. e Collab., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 57-76.
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Copyright © 2015, IGI Global. Organizations have shown a significant interest in the adoption of emerging social technologies to support communication and collaboration needs of their Distributed Agile or Adaptive Development Environment (DADE). However, the challenge is how best to assess contemporary social technologies for supporting communication and collaboration in the DADE. Here, a communication technology assessment tool, called CTAT, is developed as a part of the Adaptive Enterprise Service System (AESS) toolkit by using the design research approach. This paper presents the evaluation of the CTAT construct through its use in the assessment of three social technologies within the context of a DADE. The results of this evaluation indicate that CTAT is shown to be useful, for example, when assessing a particular social technology for a specific DADE communication and collaboration context. The CTAT is intended to be used by senior developers for assessing social technologies for their DADE context.

Gill, AQ 2015, 'Social architecture considerations in assessing social media for emergency information management applications', Australian Journal of Emergency Management, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 17-21.
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The emergency management industry is showing a significant interest in the adoption of social media for sourcing and disseminating crisis information. The emergency management industry needs to identify social architecture concerns when considering the adoption of a specific social media technology. Social architecture describes the properties and environment of a social system such as the 'emergency management system'. This paper identifies a set of 21 social architecture concerns based on recent qualitative research. This set of social architecture concerns can be used as a criteria list to assess the effectiveness of social media platforms for emergency information management applications.

Gill, AQ & Qureshi, MA 2015, 'Adaptive Enterprise Architecture Modelling.', J. Softw., vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 628-638.
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Agile or adaptive enterprise architecture driven software development approach requires a modelling standard to describe the existing and to-be developed artifacts both at the high enterprise level and low, detailed level. However, a single modelling standard may not be used off-the-shelf to fully support the modelling needs of an adaptive enterprise architecture driven software development needs. The modelling standards need to be systematically analyzed and integrated for a particular modelling context. This paper reviews two well-known modeling standards ArchiMate and BPMN by using the interoperability research framework. Based on the syntax, semantics and structural analysis of these two modelling standards’ metamodels, it proposes a hybrid adaptive enterprise architecture modelling approach for describing and analysing the artifacts both at the high enterprise level and low, detailed level for a particular context. This paper has both theoretical and practical implications for researchers and practitioners pursuing to integrate various modelling standards.

Gill, AQ, Alam, SL & Eustace, J 2015, 'Social Architecture: An Emergency Management Case Study.', Australas. J. Inf. Syst., vol. 19, pp. 23-40.
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© 2015 Gill, Alam & Eustace. Emergency management agencies are progressively using social media for the sourcing and distribution of disaster information. Emergency management agencies are often unsure as to how to best identify and assess social media concerns (e.g. information security, trust) which must be addressed to develop a social media-enabled disaster information management environment. This paper adopts the Social Architecture Viewpoint Assessment (SAVA) framework for identifying and assessing social media concerns from four different viewpoints: IT, Value, Resource and Management. This paper demonstrates the use of the SAVA framework in the context of an in-depth empirical case study of an Australian emergency management agency. The results of this study indicate that the SAVA framework is useful for emergency information management managers in identifying and assessing social media concerns.

Gilmore, R 2015, 'The world’s fastest wireless backhaul radio', Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-1.
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Fibre is commonly perceived to be the dominant transport mechanism for transferring data from access points back to a central office, where it is aggregated onto the core network. However, high speed and long range wireless backhaul remains a cost-effective alternative to fibre networks. In some areas, wireless backhaul is dominant and becoming more and more attractive. However, commercially available wireless backhaul systems do not meet the requirements for both high speed and long range at the same time with sufficiently low latency for some applications. Traditional microwave systems can achieve long transmission range, but the data rates are then limited to a few hundred megabits per second. Multi-gigabit per second wireless communications can be achieved using millimetre-wave (mm-wave) frequency bands, especially in E-band, but the practical transmission range has then always been a major weakness.In this article, the world’s first 5Gbps radio solution – and the fastest commercial backhaul product – developed by EM Solutions Pty Ltd with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) – is described. As well as achieving a state-of-the-art data rate, other key design features include maximal path length, minimal latency, and constant antenna pointing under wind and tower vibration.

Ginger, J, Henderson, D, Humphreys, M, Konthesingha, C & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Wind Loads on the Frames of Industrial Buildings', Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 169-178.
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Ginger, J, Henderson, D, Humphreys, M, Konthesinghe, C & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Wind loads on the frames of industrial buildings', Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 169-177.
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The structural response of typical, gable-end, low roof pitch industrial buildings, in a windstorm is dependent on the wind loads used in the design of cladding and the portal frame structure. Critical, structural wind load effects derived from wind loads measured on a wind tunnel model show that standards such as AS/NZS 1170.2 can produce unconservative design load effects on the heavily loaded fi rst internal frame. This paper forms part of wider study that assesses the vulnerability of hot rolled steel, industrial buildings to wind loads. The knee and ridge bending moments and horizontal and vertical reactions at the base of the frame are the critical load effects that are used in the design of structural members and connections of these types of buildings. This study found that some of these load effects based on external pressures are under-estimated by about 30%, when the building is located in a suburban environment. A dominant windward wall opening can effectively double the design load effects, thus signifi cantly increasing the vulnerability, especially if this scenario has not been considered by the designer.

Gmel, GE, Hamilton, TJ, Obradovic, M, Gorman, RB, Single, PS, Chenery, HJ, Coyne, T, Silburn, PA & Parker, JL 2015, 'A new biomarker for subthalamic deep brain stimulation for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease—a pilot study', Journal of Neural Engineering, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 066013-066013.
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© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd. Objective. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become the standard treatment for advanced stages of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other motor disorders. Although the surgical procedure has improved in accuracy over the years thanks to imaging and microelectrode recordings, the underlying principles that render DBS effective are still debated today. The aim of this paper is to present initial findings around a new biomarker that is capable of assessing the efficacy of DBS treatment for PD which could be used both as a research tool, as well as in the context of a closed-loop stimulator. Approach. We have used a novel multi-channel stimulator and recording device capable of measuring the response of nervous tissue to stimulation very close to the stimulus site with minimal latency, rejecting most of the stimulus artefact usually found with commercial devices. We have recorded and analyzed the responses obtained intraoperatively in two patients undergoing DBS surgery in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) for advanced PD. Main results. We have identified a biomarker in the responses of the STN to DBS. The responses can be analyzed in two parts, an initial evoked compound action potential arising directly after the stimulus onset, and late responses (LRs), taking the form of positive peaks, that follow the initial response. We have observed a morphological change in the LRs coinciding with a decrease in the rigidity of the patients. Significance. These initial results could lead to a better characterization of the DBS therapy, and the design of adaptive DBS algorithms that could significantly improve existing therapies and help us gain insights into the functioning of the basal ganglia and DBS.

Golembiewski, B, Sick, N & Broering, S 2015, 'Potential convergence processes within the emerging bioeconomyPotential convergence processes within the emerging bioeconomy – agriculture and energy industry in the focus', International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 1550012-1-1550012-22.

Golembiewski, B, Sick, N & Bröring, S 2015, 'Patterns of Convergence Within the Emerging Bioeconomy — The Case of the Agricultural and Energy Sector', International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, vol. 12, no. 03, pp. 1550012-1550012.
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In light of an emerging bioeconomy, fading boundaries between the so far distinct agricultural and energy sector indicate a convergence process leading to a new competitive setting between established value chains requiring dynamic capabilities of the affected firms. On the basis of understanding convergence as a process within research-intensive industries, patent analyses can be applied to identify whether there are trends of convergence associated with the emerging bioeconomy. This study focuses on examining the nexus of agricultural and energy sector with regard to German biogas technologies. Although different disciplinary activities within the field of biogas can be confirmed, for now, biogas (as well as other bioenergy) applications rather seem to build a sub-segment within the energy value chain than to form a new inter-industry segment.

Golembiewski, B, Sick, N & Bröring, S 2015, 'The emerging research landscape on bioeconomy: What has been done so far and what is essential from a technology and innovation management perspective?', Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, vol. 29, pp. 308-317.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. As the global resource base is in need to move from fossil towards bio-based raw materials, different supply chains as well as existing technology platforms become increasingly interconnected. The therefore needed creation and exchange of new knowledge across scientific disciplines require R&D and target technology development and innovation, linking the knowledge-based bioeconomy to technology and innovation management research. In order to get an overview of the current research landscape dealing with the bioeconomy, a publication analysis is conducted. As the number of empirical studies, particularly in management research, is low, our study reveals that the evolution of the bioeconomy is still on a strategic level. Existing studies focus on knowledge networks, open innovation and technologies applicable across value chains to enable a holistic view on organizing future resource allocation and biomass flows. Scientific research in several dimensions is needed to elaborate the bioeconomy concept to make its implementation manageable. Industrial relevance Value chains, particularly of the agri-food, industrial products and energy sector, will increasingly converge due to the shift to bio-based raw materials leading to a mutual dependence and triggering new material flows and food processing technologies. This paper suggests that essential innovation management related research frames might contribute to a sustainable evolution of the bioeconomy by addressing the major challenges.

Golembiewski, B, vom Stein, N, Sick, N & Wiemhöfer, H-D 2015, 'Identifying trends in battery technologies with regard to electric mobility: evidence from patenting activities along and across the battery value chain', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 87, no. C, pp. 800-810.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Electric mobility is a topic of intense discussions in academia and industry since the stability of future energy supply as well as the associated environmental consequences are uncertain. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the research and development status of battery technologies for electric vehicles which are reflecting the interface of the automotive, chemical and electronics sector. The present study applies patent families as technological indicators in order to analyze the research activities of each step of the designed battery value chain individually and in comparison with each other to identify and discuss trends regarding the technologies associated to electric vehicles. By applying this explorative approach to the comparably new field, the study contributes to both the scientific literature on patent analysis as well as on emerging industry and value creation structures related to the electric mobility sector. Although the distribution of patents shows an emphasis on active components, the high number of patents covering more than one value chain step points towards the tendency of considering the whole value chain in systemic research approaches. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of patent assignees reveals insights on the knowledge dissemination across the value chain whereby the major share of industry actors still appears to be focused on their respective core competences but also administers important links to other value chain steps. The increase of collaborative activities across steps further hints towards starting shifts in value creation activities.

Golsorkhi, MS & Lu, DDC 2015, 'A Control Method for Inverter-Based Islanded Microgrids Based on V-I Droop Characteristics', IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 1196-1204.
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© 1986-2012 IEEE. Microgrids' performance and stability mostly depend on power-flow control strategy. In order to allow for coordinated control while maintaining reliable operation, decentralized control methods based on P and Q droop characteristics have been utilized. Inherently, the power droop control methods have slow dynamics. In this paper, a novel control method based on V-I characteristics is introduced to exploit the flexibility and fast dynamics of the inverter-based distributed energy resources. In the proposed method, the direct and quadrature axis voltage components are drooped with the corresponding currents according to a piecewise linear droop function. Eigenvalue analysis of a sample microgrid shows that the proposed method features faster dynamics and improved damping compared to the conventional droop scheme. Simulation results are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed method.

Goodswen, SJ, Barratt, JLN, Kennedy, PJ & Ellis, JT 2015, 'Improving the gene structure annotation of the apicomplexan parasite Neospora caninum fulfils a vital requirement towards an in silico-derived vaccine', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY, vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 305-318.
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© 2015 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Neospora caninum is an apicomplexan parasite which can cause abortion in cattle, instigating major economic burden. Vaccination has been proposed as the most cost-effective control measure to alleviate this burden. Consequently the overriding aspiration for N. caninum research is the identification and subsequent evaluation of vaccine candidates in animal models. To save time, cost and effort, it is now feasible to use an in silico approach for vaccine candidate prediction. Precise protein sequences, derived from the correct open reading frame, are paramount and arguably the most important factor determining the success or failure of this approach. The challenge is that publicly available N. caninum sequences are mostly derived from gene predictions. Annotated inaccuracies can lead to erroneously predicted vaccine candidates by bioinformatics programs. This study evaluates the current N. caninum annotation for potential inaccuracies. Comparisons with annotation from a closely related pathogen, Toxoplasma gondii, are also made to distinguish patterns of inconsistency. More importantly, a mRNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) experiment is used to validate the annotation. Potential discrepancies originating from a questionable start codon context and exon boundaries were identified in 1943 protein coding sequences. We conclude, where experimental data were available, that the majority of N. caninum gene sequences were reliably predicted. Nevertheless, almost 28% of genes were identified as questionable. Given the limitations of RNA-Seq, the intention of this study was not to replace the existing annotation but to support or oppose particular aspects of it. Ideally, many studies aimed at improving the annotation are required to build a consensus. We believe this study, in providing a new resource on gene structure and annotation, is a worthy contributor to this endeavour.

Granade, C, Ferrie, C & Cory, DG 2015, 'Accelerated randomized benchmarking', New Journal of Physics, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 013042-013042.
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© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Quantum information processing offers promising advances for a wide range of fields and applications, provided that we can efficiently assess the performance of the control applied in candidate systems. That is, we must be able to determine whether we have implemented a desired gate, and refine accordingly. Randomized benchmarking reduces the difficulty of this task by exploiting symmetries in quantum operations. Here, we bound the resources required for benchmarking and show that, with prior information, we can achieve several orders of magnitude better accuracy than in traditional approaches to benchmarking. Moreover, by building on state-of-the-art classical algorithms, we reach these accuracies with near-optimal resources. Our approach requires an order of magnitude less data to achieve the same accuracies and to provide online estimates of the errors in the reported fidelities. We also show that our approach is useful for physical devices by comparing to simulations.

Grant, M & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Probabilistic Risk Assessment for Improvised Explosive Device Attacks That Cause Significant Building Damage', Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, vol. 29, no. 5.
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Most vulnerability assessments assume that an improvised explosive device (IED) will reach maximum TNT equivalency, and that the IED will successfully detonate. These assumptions will tend to overestimate actual blast-load effects. The paper develops an IED probabilistic risk-assessment model using a systems model for IED attacks based on the reliability of IEDs and by characterizing the human aspects of an IED attack's operational effectiveness from existing databases of terrorist incidents. The analysis includes estimates of the probability of threat, hazard, and loss for large commercial buildings in the United States. It was found that annual fatality risk for building occupants is similar to acceptable risk criteria. This suggests that strengthening buildings against progressive collapse may not be warranted unless there is a specific threat against a building.

Gross, JA, Dangniam, N, Ferrie, C & Caves, CM 2015, 'Novelty, efficacy, and significance of weak measurements for quantum tomography', Physical Review A, vol. 92, no. 6.
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Guan, D-F, Ding, C, Qian, Z-P, Zhang, Y-S, Cao, W-Q & Dutkiewicz, E 2015, 'An SIW-Based Large-Scale Corporate-Feed Array Antenna', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 63, no. 7, pp. 2969-2976.
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© 2015 IEEE. A 16 × 16 substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity-backed array antenna is proposed in this paper. The array consists of two layers. The top layer employs novel SIW-based subarrays with a compact size. The bottom layer is an 8 × 8 SIW corporate-feed network to feed the subarrays. The Chebyshev amplitude weighting is employed in the feed network, which substantially reduces the side lobe level (SLL). The array antenna is fabricated using low-cost printed circuit board technology. The experimental results show that the proposed array antenna has a large bandwidth of 15% from 18.5 to 21.5 GHz with a peak gain of 29.1 dBi at 20.5 GHz. Across the entire band, high radiation efficiency above 62% and a low SLL below -17 dB are realized. The design principle can be used as a guidance for large-scale planar array antenna design and the proposed antenna can be used as a receiving antenna located on the ground in satellite communication systems.

Gulzar, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Varman, M & Rizwanul Fattah, IM 2015, 'Oil filter modification for biodiesel–fueled engine: A pathway to lubricant sustainability and exhaust emissions reduction', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 91, pp. 168-175.
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Gulzar, M, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Kalam, MA, Mufti, RA, Zulkifli, NWM, Yunus, R & Zahid, R 2015, 'Improving the AW/EP ability of chemically modified palm oil by adding CuO and MoS2 nanoparticles', Tribology International, vol. 88, pp. 271-279.
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Guo, D, Ding, J, Tang, J, Xu, M & Zhao, C 2015, 'NIF-based seam carving for image resizing', Multimedia Systems, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 603-613.
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Guo, J, Peng, Y, Ni, B-J, Han, X, Fan, L & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Dissecting microbial community structure and methane-producing pathways of a full-scale anaerobic reactor digesting activated sludge from wastewater treatment by metagenomic sequencing', Microbial Cell Factories, vol. 14, no. 1, p. 33.
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BACKGROUND: Anaerobic digestion has been widely applied to treat the waste activated sludge from biological wastewater treatment and produce methane for biofuel, which has been one of the most efficient solutions to both energy crisis and environmental pollution challenges. Anaerobic digestion sludge contains highly complex microbial communities, which play crucial roles in sludge treatment. However, traditional approaches based on 16S rRNA amplification or fluorescent in situ hybridization cannot completely reveal the whole microbial community structure due to the extremely high complexity of the involved communities. In this sense, the next-generation high-throughput sequencing provides a powerful tool for dissecting microbial community structure and methane-producing pathways in anaerobic digestion. RESULTS: In this work, the metagenomic sequencing was used to characterize microbial community structure of the anaerobic digestion sludge from a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant. Over 3.0 gigabases of metagenomic sequence data were generated with the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. Taxonomic analysis by MG-RAST server indicated that overall bacteria were dominant (~93%) whereas a considerable abundance of archaea (~6%) were also detected in the anaerobic digestion sludge. The most abundant bacterial populations were found to be Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. Key microorganisms and related pathways involved in methanogenesis were further revealed. The dominant proliferation of Methanosaeta and Methanosarcina, together with the functional affiliation of enzymes-encoding genes (acetate kinase (AckA), phosphate acetyltransferase (PTA), and acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACSS)), suggested that the acetoclastic methanogenesis is the dominant methanogenesis pathway in the full-scale anaerobic digester. CONCLUSIONS: In short, the metagenomic sequencing study of this work successfully dissected the detail microbial community s...

Guo, J, Yang, T, Yuan, J & Zhang, JA 2015, 'Linear Vector Physical-Layer Network Coding for MIMO Two-Way Relay Channels: Design and Performance Analysis', IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 63, no. 7, pp. 2591-2604.
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© 1972-2012 IEEE. In this paper, we propose a new linear vector physical-layer network coding (NC) scheme for spatial multiplexing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) two-way relay channel (TWRC) where the channel state information (CSI) is not available at the transmitters. In this scheme, each user transmits $M$ independent quadrature amplitude modulation signal streams respectively from its $M$ antennas to the relay. Based on the receiver-side CSI, the relay determines a NC generator matrix for linear vector network coding, and reconstructs the associated $M$ linear combinations of all messages. We present an explicit solution for the generator matrix that minimizes the error probability at a high SNR, as well as an efficient algorithm to find the optimized solution. We propose a novel typical error event analysis that exploits a new characterization of the deep fade events for the TWRC. We derive a new closed-form expression for the average error probability of the proposed scheme over a Rayleigh fading MIMO TWRC. Our analysis shows that the proposed scheme achieves the optimal error rate performance at a high SNR. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms existing schemes, and match well with our analytical results.

Guo, S, Qu, F, Ding, A, Bai, L, Li, G, Ngo, HH, Guo, W & Liang, H 2015, 'Effects of poly aluminum chloride dosing positions on the performance of a pilot scale anoxic/oxic-membrane bioreactor (A/O-MBR)', Water Science and Technology, vol. 72, no. 5, pp. 689-695.
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The effects of poly aluminum chloride (PACl) dosing positions on the performance of a pilot scale anoxic/oxic membrane bioreactor were investigated. PACl dosage was optimized at 19.5 mg Al2O3/L by jar test. Nutrients removal efficiencies and sludge properties were systematically investigated during periods with no PACl dosing (phase I), with PACl dosing in oxic tank (phase II) and then in anoxic tank (phase III). The results showed that total phosphorus removal efficiency increased from 18 to 88% in phase II and 85% in phase III with less than 0.5 mg P/L in effluent. Ammonia nitrogen removal efficiencies reached 99% in all phases and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies reached 92%, 91% and 90% in the three phases, respectively. Total nitrogen removal efficiency decreased from 59% in phase I to 49% in phases II and III. Dosing PACl in the oxic tank resulted in smaller sludge particle size, higher zeta potential, better sludge settleability and lower membrane fouling rate in comparison with dosing PACl in the anoxic tank.

Guo, Y, Naik, GR, Huang, S, Abraham, A & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Nonlinear multiscale Maximal Lyapunov Exponent for accurate myoelectric signal classification', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 36, pp. 633-640.
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Gupta, B, Notarianni, M, Mishra, N, Shafiei, M, Iacopi, F & Motta, N 2015, 'Corrigendum to “Evolution of epitaxial graphene layers on 3C SiC/Si (1 1 1) as a function of annealing temperature in UHV” [Carbon 68 (2014) 563–572]', Carbon, vol. 84, pp. 280-280.
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Gupta, B, Placidi, E, Hogan, C, Mishra, N, Iacopi, F & Motta, N 2015, 'The transition from 3C SiC(111) to graphene captured by Ultra High Vacuum Scanning Tunneling Microscopy', Carbon, vol. 91, pp. 378-385.
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Gupta, B, Stanton, N, Coleman, H, White, C & Singh, J 2015, 'A novel approach to the management of a central giant cell granuloma with denosumab: A case report and review of current treatments', Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 43, no. 7, pp. 1127-1132.
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Ha, DT, Dang, TQ, Tran, NV, Vo, NY, Nguyen, ND & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Prognostic performance of the Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS) and Worthing Physiological Scoring system (WPS) in emergency department', International Journal of Emergency Medicine, vol. 8, no. 1.
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Ha, Q, Royel, S, Li, J & Li, Y 2015, 'Hysteresis Modeling of Smart Structure MR Devices using Describing Functions', IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 1-1.
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© 1996-2012 IEEE. Magnetorheological (MR) devices have been quite promising for semiactive control, thanks to their capability of adjusting structural parameters, under a low-power control signal, to effectively withstand severe dynamic loadings including seismic events. MR devices, using visco-elastic and ferromagnetic materials, are subject to hysteresis, which may degrade the performance of smart structures. Therefore, this multivalued nonlinearity needs to be properly modeled and characterized for control and health monitoring. As engineering structures operate as low-pass filter in normal conditions, it is suitable to use the classical describing function (DF) method for modeling and analysis of the hysteretic behaviors in MR device-based smart structures. Data obtained from characterizing tests are recorded in look-up tables to obtain the DFs for these devices, using a curve-fitting technique. The proposed DFs are then useful in structural frequency analysis. Experimental results are reported for a steel beam with MR pin joints subject to quake-induced vibrations provided by a shake table.

Haah, J, Harrow, AW, Ji, Z, Wu, X & Yu, N 2015, 'Sample-optimal tomography of quantum states', IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 63, no. 9, pp. 5628-5641.
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It is a fundamental problem to decide how many copies of an unknown mixedquantum state are necessary and sufficient to determine the state. Previously,it was known only that estimating states to error $\epsilon$ in trace distancerequired $O(dr^2/\epsilon^2)$ copies for a $d$-dimensional density matrix ofrank $r$. Here, we give a theoretical measurement scheme (POVM) that requires$O (dr/ \delta ) \ln (d/\delta) $ copies of $\rho$ to error $\delta$ ininfidelity, and a matching lower bound up to logarithmic factors. This implies$O( (dr / \epsilon^2) \ln (d/\epsilon) )$ copies suffice to achieve error$\epsilon$ in trace distance. We also prove that for independent (product)measurements, $\Omega(dr^2/\delta^2) / \ln(1/\delta)$ copies are necessary inorder to achieve error $\delta$ in infidelity. For fixed $d$, our measurementcan be implemented on a quantum computer in time polynomial in $n$.

Habibullah, M & Lu, DD-C 2015, 'A Speed-Sensorless FS-PTC of Induction Motors Using Extended Kalman Filters', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 6765-6778.
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© 2015 IEEE. A sensorless finite-state predictive torque control (FS-PTC) strategy uses stator current, estimated stator and rotor flux, and estimated rotor speed to predict stator flux and torque. Direct application of measured stator currents and using a noisy estimated speed in the prediction model degrade the steady-state performance in terms of higher current total harmonic distortion (THD), torque ripple, and flux ripple, particularly at low speeds. This paper proposes an extended Kalman filter (EKF)-based, which is a promising state observer, improved prediction model of sensorless FS-PTC for induction motor drives. The EKF has been used to estimate rotor speed, rotor/stator flux, and stator currents accurately. The estimated stator currents, instead of measured currents, are fed back to the prediction model, and thus, small stator current THD is confirmed. Depending on the commanded speed, either the rotor current model or the open-loop stator voltage model is proposed for the EKF to achieve better performance in a wide speed range, including the field-weakening region. The proposed control system has been verified experimentally, and excellent torque and flux responses, robustness, and stable operation at lower and higher speeds have been achieved.

Habibullah, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Gulzar, M, Arslan, A & Zahid, R 2015, 'Tribological Characteristics ofCalophyllum inophyllum–Based TMP (Trimethylolpropane) Ester as Energy-Saving and Biodegradable Lubricant', Tribology Transactions, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 1002-1011.
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Habibullah, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Rahman, SMA, Mofijur, M, Mobarak, HM & Ashraful, AM 2015, 'Potential of biodiesel as a renewable energy source in Bangladesh', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 50, pp. 819-834.
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Habibullah, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Zulkifli, NWM, Masum, BM, Arslan, A & Gulzar, M 2015, 'Friction and wear characteristics of Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel', Industrial Crops and Products, vol. 76, pp. 188-197.
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Habibullah, M, Rizwanul Fattah, IM, Masjuki, HH & Kalam, MA 2015, 'Effects of Palm–Coconut Biodiesel Blends on the Performance and Emission of a Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine', Energy & Fuels, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 734-743.
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This study aims to investigate the effects of palm or coconut biodiesel blend and their combination on the performance and emissions of a single-cylinder diesel engine. A 20% v/v blend of palm biodiesel (PB20) or coconut biodiesel (CB20) and varying percentage mixtures of these two feedstocks (PB15CB5, PB10CB10, and PB5CB15) were used in the experiments. Biodiesel was produced using one-step transesterification. Physicochemical analysis showed that both palm and coconut biodiesel met the specifications of ASTM D6751. A 10 kW, horizontal, one-cylinder, four-stroke direct injection diesel engine was used to carry out tests under full load conditions at varying speeds from 1400 to 2400 rpm with an interval of 200 rpm. Burning of CB20 reduced break power by 1.72% and increased brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and NOx emission by 4.07% and 4.49%, respectively. Conversely, burning of PB20 negligibly reduced brake power and increased NOx emission by only 1.79%. Meanwhile, combined palm-coconut biodiesel at a constant final blend reduced NOx emission by 0.54% to 1.85% and slightly improved brake power and BSFC. Thus, the advantages of the high cetane number of coconut and the high ignition quality of palm biodiesel were aggregated in the combined blends.

Hamdan, M, Sharif, AO, Derwish, G, Al-Aibi, S & Altaee, A 2015, 'Draw solutions for Forward Osmosis process: Osmotic pressure of binary and ternary aqueous solutions of magnesium chloride, sodium chloride, sucrose and maltose', Journal of Food Engineering, vol. 155, pp. 10-15.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The objective of the present work is to investigate the behaviour of binary and ternary aqueous systems, which could be employed in the selection criteria for draw agents (DA) to be used in Forward Osmosis (FO) process applications. In this study the osmotic properties of the selected binary and ternary aqueous solutions of magnesium chloride (MgCl2), sodium chloride (NaCl), sucrose and maltose are investigated. Osmotic pressures were calculated from water activities obtained from measured relative humidity of the solutions of concentrations in the range 0.5-6.0 mol kg-1 at 298.15 K. The osmotic behaviours of the ternary systems were compared with their binary counter parts; the results showed either positive or negative osmotic synergic effects. This could be used besides transport properties for considering the selection of favourable draw agents from those that exhibited positive synergy, i.e. the osmotic pressure of a ternary solution is greater than the sum of the pressures of the corresponding binary solutions. The results showed that the ternary aqueous solutions of MgCl2 + NaCl showed significant positive synergy and therefore are possible suitable candidates as draw solutions, less so were the sugar-electrolyte systems.

Han, J, Lu, J, Hu, Y & Zhang, G 2015, 'Tri-level decision-making with multiple followers: Model, algorithm and case study', INFORMATION SCIENCES, vol. 311, pp. 182-204.
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© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Tri-level decision-making arises to address compromises among interacting decision entities distributed throughout a three-level hierarchy; these entities are respectively termed the top-level leader, the middle-level follower and the bottom-level follower. This study considers an uncooperative situation where multiple followers at the same (middle or bottom) level make their individual decisions independently but consider the decision results of their counterparts as references through information exchanged among themselves. This situation is called a reference-based uncooperative multi-follower tri-level (MFTL) decision problem which appears in many real-world applications. To solve this problem, we need to find an optimal solution achieving both the Stackelberg equilibrium in the three-level vertical structure and the Nash equilibrium among multiple followers at the same horizontal level. In this paper, we first propose a general linear MFTL decision model for this situation. We then develop a MFTL Kth-Best algorithm to find an optimal solution to the model. Since the optimal solution means a compromised result in the uncooperative situation and it is often imprecise or ambiguous for decision entities to identify their related satisfaction, we use a fuzzy programming approach to characterize and evaluate the solution obtained. Lastly, a real-world case study on production-inventory planning illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed MFTL decision techniques.

Han, Y, Cao, Q & Ji, J 2015, 'Nonlinear Dynamics of a Smooth and Discontinuous Oscillator with Multiple Stability', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIFURCATION AND CHAOS, vol. 25, no. 13.
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Han, Y, Yang, Y & Wang, J 2015, 'Guest Editorial: Ad Hoc Web Multimedia Analysis with Limited Supervision', Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 463-465.
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Han, Y, Yang, Y, Wu, F & Hong, R 2015, 'Compact and Discriminative Descriptor Inference Using Multi-Cues', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 5114-5126.
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Handojoseno, AMA, Shine, JM, Nguyen, TN, Tran, Y, Lewis, SJG & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Analysis and Prediction of the Freezing of Gait Using EEG Brain Dynamics', IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 887-896.
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© 2014 IEEE. Freezing of Gait (FOG) is a common symptom in the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease (PD), which significantly affects patients' quality of life. Treatment options offer limited benefit and there are currently no mechanisms able to effectively detect FOG before it occurs, allowing time for a sufferer to avert a freezing episode. Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a novel technique that may be able to address this problem. In this paper, we investigated the univariate and multivariate EEG features determined by both Fourier and wavelet analysis in the confirmation and prediction of FOG. The EEG power measures and network properties from 16 patients with PD and FOG were extracted and analyzed. It was found that both power spectral density and wavelet energy could potentially act as biomarkers during FOG. Information in the frequency domain of the EEG was found to provide better discrimination of EEG signals during transition to freezing than information coded in the time domain. The performance of the FOG prediction systems improved when the information from both domains was used. This combination resulted in a sensitivity of 86.0%, specificity of 74.4%, and accuracy of 80.2% when predicting episodes of freezing, outperforming current accelerometry- based tools for the prediction of FOG.

Hao, L, Jiang, Z, Cheng, X, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Jiang, L, Luo, S, Luo, M & Ma, L 2015, 'Effect of Extreme Pressure Additives on the Deformation Behavior of Oxide Scale during the Hot Rolling of Ferritic Stainless Steel Strips', Tribology Transactions, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 947-954.
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Hao, L, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Zhao, Y, Zhao, J, Luo, M, Ma, L, Luo, S & Jiang, L 2015, 'Effect of extreme pressure agents on the anti-scratch behaviour of high-speed steel material', Tribology International, vol. 81, pp. 19-28.
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Harte, AM & Crews, K 2015, 'Special issue: Reinforcement of timber structures', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 97, pp. 1-1.
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Hasan, MA, Xu, M, He, X & Wang, Y 2015, 'A camera motion histogram descriptor for video shot classification', Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 74, no. 24, pp. 11073-11098.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. In this paper, a novel camera motion descriptor is proposed for video shot classification. In the proposed method, raw motion information of consecutive video frames are extracted by computing the motion vector of each macroblock to form motion vector fields (MVFs). Next, a motion consistency analysis is applied on MVFs to eliminate the inconsistent motion vectors. Then, MVFs are divided into nine (3 × 3) local regions and the singular value decomposition (SVD) technique is applied on the motion vectors extracted from each local region in the temporal direction. Consistent motion vectors of a number of MVFs are compactly represented at a time to characterize temporal camera motion. Accordingly, each local region of the whole video shot is represented using a sequence of compactly represented vectors. Finally, the sequence of vectors is converted into a histogram to describe the camera motions of each local region. Combination of all the local histograms is considered as the camera motion descriptor of a video shot. The shot descriptors are used in a classifier to classify video shots. In this work, we use support vector machine (SVM) for performing classification tasks. The experimental results show that the proposed camera motion descriptor has strong discriminative capability to classify different camera motion patterns in professionally captured video shots effectively. We also show that our proposed approach outperforms two state-of-the-art video shot classification methods.

Hasan, MM, Zhou, Y, Lu, X, Li, J, Song, J & Zhang, Z 2015, 'Computational Identification of Protein Pupylation Sites by Using Profile-Based Composition of k-Spaced Amino Acid Pairs', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. e0129635-e0129635.
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© 2015 Hasan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Prokaryotic proteins are regulated by pupylation, a type of post-translational modification that contributes to cellular function in bacterial organisms. In pupylation process, the prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) tagging is functionally analogous to ubiquitination in order to tag target proteins for proteasomal degradation. To date, several experimental methods have been developed to identify pupylated proteins and their pupylation sites, but these experimental methods are generally laborious and costly. Therefore, computational methods that can accurately predict potential pupylation sites based on protein sequence information are highly desirable. In this paper, a novel predictor termed as pbPUP has been developed for accurate prediction of pupylation sites. In particular, a sophisticated sequence encoding scheme [i.e. the profile-based composition of k-spaced amino acid pairs (pbCKSAAP)] is used to represent the sequence patterns and evolutionary information of the sequence fragments surrounding pupylation sites. Then, a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is trained using the pbCKSAAP encoding scheme. The final pbPUP predictor achieves an AUC value of 0.849 in10-fold cross-validation tests and outperforms other existing predictors on a comprehensive independent test dataset. The proposed method is anticipated to be a helpful computational resource for the prediction of pupylation sites. The web server and curated datasets in this study are freely available at http://protein.cau.edu.cn/pbPUP/.

Hashmi, RM & Esselle, KP 2015, 'A wideband EBG resonator antenna with an extremely small footprint area', Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 57, no. 7, pp. 1531-1535.
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ABSTRACTAn electromagnetic band gap resonator antenna (ERA) with an extremely small footprint is presented. The proposed ERA has a peak measured gain of 15.6 dBi and an excellent measured 3dB gain‐bandwidth of 27%. The four‐layer composite superstructure used in this ERA takes the shape of a circular disc with the ground plane radius equal to that of the superstructure. Its footprint area is only 1.7λ02 at the lowest operating frequency. The average measured aperture efficiency of this ERA is nearly 90%. The side lobe levels are well below −12 dB over most of the operating bandwidth and the cross polarization levels are below −17 dB. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1531–1535, 2015

Hashmi, RM & Esselle, KP 2015, 'Erratum for: A wideband EBG resonator antenna with an extremely small footprint area', Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 57, no. 9, pp. 2228-2228.
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Hasselmann, K, Cremades, R, Filatova, T, Hewitt, R, Jaeger, C, Kovalevsky, D, Voinov, A & Winder, N 2015, 'Free-riders to forerunners', Nature Geoscience, vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 895-898.
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Hayes, G, Khazaei, H, El-Khatib, K, McGregor, C & Eklund, JM 2015, 'Design and analytical model of a platform-as-a-service cloud for healthcare', Journal of Internet Technology, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 139-149.
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Recent progression in health informatics data analysis has been impeded due to lack of hospital resources and computation power. To remedy this, some researchers have proposed a cloud-based web service patient monitoring system capable of providing offsite collection, analysis, and dissemination of remote patient physiological data. Unfortunately, some of these cloud services are not effective without utilizing next-generation hardware management techniques. In order to make cloud based patient monitoring a reality, this paper shows how leveraging an underlying platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud model can provide integration with web service patient monitoring systems while providing high availability, scalability, and security. We also present an analytical model of the proposed platform and obtain performance measures such as delay in servicing as well as reject probability.

He, C, Wang, TQ & Armstrong, J 2015, 'Performance of Optical Receivers Using Photodetectors With Different Fields of View in a MIMO ACO-OFDM System', Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 33, no. 23, pp. 4957-4967.
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He, X & Liang, D 2015, 'Study of the Runout of Granular Columns with SPH Methods', International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 281-287.
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Heidari, R, Afroz, F, Subramanian, R, Cong, S, Sandrasegaran, K & Kong, X 2015, 'Packet Scheduling Study For Heterogeneous Traffic In Downlink 3gpplte System', International Journal of Wireless & Mobile Networks, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 91-106.
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Long Term Evolution (LTE) network deploys Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) technology for downlink multi-carrier transmission. To meet the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for LTE networks, packet scheduling has been employed. Packet scheduling determines when and how the user’s packets are transmitted to the receiver. Therefore effective design of packet scheduling algorithm is an important discussion. The aims of packet scheduling are maximizing system throughput, guaranteeing fairness among users, andminimizing either or both PacketLoss Ratio (PLR)and packet delay. Inthis paper, the performance of two packet scheduling algorithms namely Log Maximum-Largest Weighted Delay First (LOG-MLWDF) and Max Delay Unit (MDU), developed for OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)networks, has been investigated in LTE downlink networks, and acomparison of those algorithmswith a well-known scheduling algorithm namely Maximum-Largest Weighted Delay First(MLWDF) has been studied.The performance evaluation was in terms of system throughput, PLR and fairness index. This study was performed forboth real time (voice and video streaming)and non-real time (best effort)perspectives. Results show that for streaming flows,LOG-MLWDF shows best PLR performance among the considered scheduling schemes, and for best effort flows, it outperforms theother two algorithms in terms of packet delay and throughput.

Heitor, A, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Effect of suction history on the small strain response of a dynamically compacted soil', Australian Geomechanics Journal, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 61-68.
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Small strain behaviour is a key indicator in the assessment of the performance of compacted fills. Compaction conditions i.e. initial moisture content and applied energy, govern compaction effectiveness and thus the structure and matric suction of compacted soil. During the service life of earth structures, they experience changes in hydraulic behaviour owing to climatic changes. While the results of previous research studies indicate that the effect of changes in suction on the dynamic response is significant, only limited research has been engaged in the assessment of the effect of post-compacted changes in suction induced by periods of intensive precipitation (i.e. wetting) and drought (i.e. drying). The seasonal fluctuations of moisture reflected in the soil's suction history have an important impact on the geomechanical performance of compacted soil. In this paper, the aspects related to the effect of suction history of a compacted silty sand soil subjected to cycles of wetting and drying are described. The results not only confirm the importance of the recent suction ratio (or CSR) in governing the mechanical response at small strain but also suggest that subsequent wetting-drying cycles further induce hysteretic changes, particularly when following the wetting paths.

HEITOR, A, INDRARATNA, B & RUJIKIATKAMJORN, C 2015, 'The role of compaction energy on the small strain properties of a compacted silty sand subjected to drying–wetting cycles', Géotechnique, vol. 65, no. 9, pp. 717-727.
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The elastic properties of a soil are usually investigated to describe its engineering behaviour. The results of previous studies indicate that the effect of changes in suction on the elastic response at a small strain level of soils is significant during compaction and post-compaction periods. Limited efforts have been focused on quantifying those post-compacted responses due to the changes in suction induced by wetting and drying cycles. During their service life, most earth structures experience changes in hydraulic behaviour owing to climatic changes. These seasonal fluctuations in turn impact on the geomechanical performance of compacted soil. In this paper the aspects related to the elastic properties of compacted soils subjected to cycles of drying and wetting are described. Particular emphasis is placed on the effect of compaction energy on the hysteric behaviour (i.e. amplitude of the hysteresis loop) and its dependence on the initial stress state conditions and suction history. The results not only confirm the importance of the current suction in governing the shear and compression velocities and associated moduli, but they also suggest that subsequent drying–wetting cycles or suction history can further induce hysteretic changes, particularly along the wetting paths.

Henderson, IEJ, Zhu, XQ, Uy, B & Mirza, O 2015, 'Dynamic behaviour of steel–concrete composite beams with different types of shear connectors. Part I: Experimental study', Engineering Structures, vol. 103, pp. 298-307.
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In civil engineering, composite construction has become increasingly widespread due to the improvement of mechanical properties it provides. Recently, research on the development of post installed or retrofitted shear connectors has been conducted. The benefits of this are the ease of installation and the ease of removal for decommissioning structures at the end of their life. Most of the research in this area is concerned with modified versions of welded shear studs or various threaded rod and nut configurations and refers to only one type of shear connector. Therefore, the suitability of the proposed models across differing shear connection types is unknown. In the first of two companion papers an experimental study has been undertaken to ascertain the dynamic behaviour of identical steel-concrete composite beams with differing shear connection systems. Two blind bolt connector types were used as shear connection systems in steel-concrete composite beams. Alongside these, a welded shear stud specimen, and a non-composite specimen were tested for comparison.

Henderson, IEJ, Zhu, XQ, Uy, B & Mirza, O 2015, 'Dynamic behaviour of steel–concrete composite beams with different types of shear connectors. Part II: Modelling and comparison', Engineering Structures, vol. 103, pp. 308-317.
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In the first paper of these two companion papers an experimental study was undertaken to ascertain the dynamic behaviour of identical steel-concrete composite beams with differing shear connection systems. Two blind bolt connector types were used as shear connection systems in steel-concrete composite beams. Alongside these, a welded shear stud specimen, and a non-composite specimen were tested for comparison. In this, the second paper a Timoshenko beam model for steel-concrete composite beams is developed and is compared with the experimental results. An uncertain boundary condition is investigated using the Timoshenko beam model and an empirical relation between the displacements at the beam supports and the rotation of the cross section face is proposed.

Hesamian, MH, Mashohor, S, Saripan, MI & Wan Adnan, WA 2015, 'Effect of image resolution on intensity based scene illumination classification using neural network', The Imaging Science Journal, vol. 63, no. 8, pp. 433-439.
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In this paper, a framework for testing scene illumination classification with different image resolutions is proposed. The testing aims to provide the researchers with valuable information about the effect of image resolution on scene illumination classification using a neural network. The experiment is done by extracting three types of features from the images. These three types consist of statistical features, physic based features and histogram based features. It has been demonstrated that scene illumination classification can be affected by changing the image resolution. Despite the popular belief that high resolution images lead to better results, scene illumination classification by the proposed method performed best using low resolution images. At the second part of discussion, the reason behind this phenomenon is mathematically analysed and explained.

Ho, L & Fatahi, B 2015, 'Analytical solution for the two-dimensional plane strain consolidation of an unsaturated soil stratum subjected to time-dependent loading', COMPUTERS AND GEOTECHNICS, vol. 67, pp. 1-16.
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© 2015. This paper introduces an exact analytical solution predicting variations in excess pore-air and pore-water pressures and settlement considering the two-dimensional (2D) plane strain consolidation of an unsaturated soil stratum subjected to different time-dependent loadings. Based on the proposed solution, the distributions of excess pore pressures along vertical and horizontal directions can be determined. The general solution is first expressed in a series of eigenfunctions of homogeneous partial differential equations (PDEs) and is then substituted into the governing flow equations. Using term-by-term differentiation and the orthogonality of the sine function, the governing equations become ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Once the complex domain is obtained by applying the Laplace transformation technique, the closed-form analytical solutions describing the dissipation of excess pore-air and pore-water pressures can be obtained by taking a Laplace inverse. In this study, four external loadings, including ramping, asymptotic, sinusoid and damped sine wave, are simulated and incorporated into the proposed solutions. For the data analysis, the 2D consolidation behavior is investigated against variations in the permeability ratio (ka/kw). Additionally, parametric studies regarding loading functions are presented in this paper.

Ho, L, Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2015, 'A closed form analytical solution for two-dimensional plane strain consolidation of unsaturated soil stratum', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, vol. 39, no. 15, pp. 1665-1692.
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© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper discusses the excess pore-air and pore-water pressure dissipations and the average degree of consolidation in the 2D plane strain consolidation of an unsaturated soil stratum using eigenfunction expansion and Laplace transformation techniques. In this study, the application of a constant external loading on a soil surface is assumed to immediately generate uniformly or linearly distributed initial excess pore pressures. The general solutions consisting of eigenfunctions and eigenvalues are first proposed. The Laplace transform is then applied to convert the time variable t in partial differential equations into the Laplace complex argument s. Once the domain is obtained, a simplified set of equations with variable s can be achieved. The final analytical solutions can be computed by taking a Laplace inverse. The proposed equations predict the two-dimensional consolidation behaviour of an unsaturated soil stratum capturing the uniformly and linearly distributed initial excess pore pressures. This study investigates the effects of isotropic and anisotropic permeability conditions on variations of excess pore pressures and the average degree of consolidation. Additionally, isochrones of excess pore pressures along vertical and horizontal directions are presented. It is found that the initial distribution of pore pressures, varying with depth, results in considerable effects on the pore-water pressure dissipation rate whilst it has insignificant effects on the excess pore-air pressure dissipation rate.

Hoang, DT, Lu, X, Niyato, D, Wang, P & Han, Z 2015, 'Applications of Repeated Games in Wireless Networks: A Survey', IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 2102-2135.
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A repeated game is an effective tool to model interactions and conflicts forplayers aiming to achieve their objectives in a long-term basis. Contrary tostatic noncooperative games that model an interaction among players in only oneperiod, in repeated games, interactions of players repeat for multiple periods;and thus the players become aware of other players' past behaviors and theirfuture benefits, and will adapt their behavior accordingly. In wirelessnetworks, conflicts among wireless nodes can lead to selfish behaviors,resulting in poor network performances and detrimental individual payoffs. Inthis paper, we survey the applications of repeated games in different wirelessnetworks. The main goal is to demonstrate the use of repeated games toencourage wireless nodes to cooperate, thereby improving network performancesand avoiding network disruption due to selfish behaviors. Furthermore, variousproblems in wireless networks and variations of repeated game models togetherwith the corresponding solutions are discussed in this survey. Finally, weoutline some open issues and future research directions.

Hoang, DT, Niyato, D, Wang, P & Kim, DI 2015, 'Performance Analysis of Wireless Energy Harvesting Cognitive Radio Networks Under Smart Jamming Attacks', IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 200-216.
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In cognitive radio networks with wireless energy harvesting, secondary users are able to harvest energy from a wireless power source and then use the harvested energy to transmit data opportunistically on an idle channel allocated to primary users. Such networks have become more common due to pervasiveness of wireless charging, improving the performance of the secondary users. However, in such networks, the secondary users can be vulnerable to jamming attacks by malicious users who can also harvest wireless energy to launch the attacks. In this paper, we first formulate the throughput optimization problem for a secondary user under the attacks by jammers as a Markov decision process (MDP). We then introduce a new solution based on the deception tactic to deal with smart jamming attacks. Furthermore, we propose a learning algorithm for the secondary user to find an optimal transmission policy and extend to the case with multiple secondary users in the same environment. Through the simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed learning algorithms can effectively reduce adverse effects from smart jammers even when they use different attack strategies.

Hoang, DT, Niyato, D, Wang, P & Kim, DI 2015, 'Performance Optimization for Cooperative Multiuser Cognitive Radio Networks with RF Energy Harvesting Capability', IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 14, no. 7, pp. 3614-3629.
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We study the performance optimization problem for a cognitive radio network with radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting capability for secondary users. In such networks, the secondary users are able to not only transmit packets on a channel licensed to a primary user when the channel is idle, but also harvest RF energy from the primary users' transmissions when the channel is busy. Specifically, we propose a system model where the secondary users are able to cooperate to maximize the overall network throughput through sensing a set of common channels. We first consider the case where the secondary users cooperate in a TDMA fashion and propose a novel solution based on a learning algorithm to find optimal channel access policies for the secondary users. Then, we examine the case where the secondary users cooperate in a decentralized manner and we formulate the cooperative decentralized optimization problem as a decentralized partially observable Markov decision process (DEC-POMDP). To solve the cooperative decentralized stochastic optimization problem, we apply a decentralized learning algorithm based on the policy gradient and the Lagrange multiplier method to obtain optimal channel access policies. Extensive performance evaluation is conducted and it shows the efficiency and the convergence of the learning algorithms.

Hokmabadi, AS, Fatahi, B & Samali, B 2015, 'Physical Modeling of Seismic Soil-Pile-Structure Interaction for Buildings on Soft Soils', International Journal of Geomechanics, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 04014046-04014046.
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© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers. The present research intends to study the effects of the seismic soil-pile-structure interaction (SSPSI) on the dynamic response of buildings with various heights by conducting a series of shaking table tests on 5-, 10-story, and 15-story model structures. Two types of foundations for each case are investigated, including (1) a fixed-base structure, representing the situation excluding the soil-structure interaction; and (2) a structure supported by an end-bearing pile foundation in soft soil. An advanced laminar soil container has been designed that uses three-dimensional numerical modeling to minimize the boundary effects and to simulate free-field motion during the shaking table tests. Four real earthquake events, including Kobe 1995, Northridge 1994, El Centro 1940, and Hachinohe 1968, are imposed to each model. According to the experimental measurements, it is observed that the SSPSI amplifies the maximum lateral deflections and in turn interstory drifts of the structures supported by end-bearing pile foundations in comparison with the fixed-base structures. The rocking component plays an important role in increasing the lateral deflection of the superstructures, which can shift the performance level of the structures to near collapse or even collapse levels and as a result should be assessed precisely in the seismic design of buildings resting on soft soils.

Hong, H, Pradhan, B, Xu, C & Tien Bui, D 2015, 'Spatial prediction of landslide hazard at the Yihuang area (China) using two-class kernel logistic regression, alternating decision tree and support vector machines', CATENA, vol. 133, pp. 266-281.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Lai, TQ, Mai, LD, Doan, MC, Pham, HN & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Prevalence and Pattern of Radiographic Intervertebral Disc Degeneration in Vietnamese: A Population-Based Study', Calcified Tissue International, vol. 96, no. 6, pp. 510-517.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Lai, TQ, Nguyen, MTT & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Relationship between Body Mass Index and Percent Body Fat in Vietnamese: Implications for the Diagnosis of Obesity', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. e0127198-e0127198.
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© 2015 Ho-Pham et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background The burden of obesity in Vietnam has not been well defined because there is a lack of reference data for percent body fat (PBF) in Asians. This study sought to define the relationship between PBF and body mass index (BMI) in the Vietnamese population. Methods The study was designed as a comparative cross-sectional investigation that involved 1217 individuals of Vietnamese background (862 women) aged 20 years and older (average age 7 yr) who were randomly selected from the general population in Ho Chi Minh City. Lean mass (LM) and fat mass (FM) were measured by DXA (Hologic QDR 4500). PBF was derived as FM over body weight. Results Based on BMI 30, the prevalence of obesity was 1.1% and 1.3% for men and women, respectively. The prevalence of overweight and obesity combined (BMI 25) was ∼ 24% and ∼ 19% in men and women, respectively. Based on the quadratic relationship between BMI and PBF, the approximate PBF corresponding to the BMI threshold of 30 (obese) was 30.5 in men and 41 in women. Using the criteria of PBF >30 in men and PBF >40 in women, approximately 15% of men and women were considered obese. Conclusion These data suggest that body mass index underestimates the prevalence of obesity. We suggest that a PBF >30 in men or PBF >40 in women is used as criteria for the diagnosis of obesity in Vietnamese adults. Using these criteria, 15% of Vietnamese adults in Ho Chi Minh City was considered obese.

Ho-Pham, LT, Nguyen, SC, Tran, B & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Contributions of Caucasian-associated bone mass loci to the variation in bone mineral density in Vietnamese population', Bone, vol. 76, pp. 18-22.
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Hossain, L, Karimi, F & Wigand, RT 2015, 'Dynamics of a Global Zoonotic Research Network Over 33 Years (1980–2012)', Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 496-503.
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AbstractObjectiveThe increasing rate of outbreaks in humans of zoonotic diseases requires detailed examination of the education, research, and practice of animal health and its connection to human health. This study investigated the collaboration network of different fields engaged in conducting zoonotic research from a transdisciplinary perspective.MethodsExamination of the dynamics of this network for a 33-year period from 1980 to 2012 is presented through the development of a large scientometric database from Scopus. In our analyses we compared several properties of these networks, including density, clustering coefficient, giant component, and centrality measures over time. We also elicited patterns in different fields of study collaborating with various other fields for zoonotic research.ResultsWe discovered that the strongest collaborations across disciplines are formed among the fields of medicine; biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology; immunology and microbiology; veterinary; agricultural and biological sciences; and social sciences. Furthermore, the affiliation network is growing overall in terms of collaborative research among different fields of study such that more than two-thirds of all possible collaboration links among disciplines have already been formed.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that zoonotic research scientists in different fields (human or animal health, social science, earth and environmental sciences, engineering) have been actively collaborating with each other over the past 1...

Hossain, L, Karimi, F, Wigand, RT & Crawford, JW 2015, 'Evolutionary longitudinal network dynamics of global zoonotic research', Scientometrics, vol. 103, no. 2, pp. 337-353.
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Hossain, MJ, Pota, HR, Mahmud, MA & Aldeen, M 2015, 'Robust Control for Power Sharing in Microgrids With Low-Inertia Wind and PV Generators', IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1067-1077.
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Hossain, MS, Zander, P, Kamal, MS & Chowdhury, L 2015, 'Belief‐rule‐based expert systems for evaluation of e‐government: a case study', Expert Systems, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 563-577.
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AbstractLittle knowledge exists on the impact and results associated with e‐government projects in many specific‐use domains. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of e‐government systems. Because the development of e‐government is a continuous process of improvement, it requires continuous evaluation of the overall e‐government system as well as evaluation of its various dimensions such as determinants, characteristics and results. E‐government development is often complex, with multiple stakeholders, large user bases and complex goals. Consequently, even experts have difficulties in evaluating these systems, especially in an integrated and comprehensive way, as well as on an aggregate level. Expert systems are a candidate solution to evaluate such complex e‐government systems. However, it is difficult for expert systems to cope with uncertain evaluation data that are vague, inconsistent, highly subjective or in other ways, challenging to formalize. This paper presents an approach that can handle uncertainty in e‐government evaluation: the combination of Belief Rule Base knowledge representation and Evidential Reasoning. This approach is illustrated with a concrete prototype, known as the Belief Rule Based Expert System (BRBES) and implemented in the local e‐government of Bangladesh. The results have been compared with a recently developed method of evaluating e‐government, and it is demonstrated that the results of the BRBES are more accurate and reliable. The BRBES can be used to identify the factors that need to be improved to achieve the overall aim of an e‐government project. In addition, various ‘what if’ scenarios can be generated, and developers and managers can obtain a foretaste of the outcomes. Thus, the system can be used to facilitate decision‐making processes under uncertainty.

Hosseini, SSS, Yang, X-S, Gandomi, AH & Nemati, A 2015, 'Solutions of Non-smooth Economic Dispatch Problems by Swarm Intelligence', Adaptation, Learning, and Optimization, vol. 18, pp. 129-146.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. The increasing costs of fuels and operations of power generating units necessitate the development of optimization methods for economic dispatch (ED) problems. Classical optimization techniques such as direct search and gradient methods often fail to find global optimum solutions. Modern optimization techniques are often meta-heuristic, and they are very promising in solving nonlinear programming problems. This chapter presents a novel method to determine the feasible optimal solutions of the ED problems utilizing the newly developed Bat Algorithm (BA). The proposed BA is based on the echolocation behavior of bats. This technique is adapted to solve non-convex ED problems under different nonlinear constraints such as transmission losses, ramp rate limits, multi-fuel options and prohibited operating zones. Parameters are tuned to give the best results for these problems. To describe the efficiency and applicability of the proposed algorithm, we will use four ED test systems with non-convexity. We will compare our results with some of the most recently published ED solution methods. Comparing with the other existing techniques, the proposed approach can find better solutions than other methods. This method can be deemed to be a promising alternative for solving the ED problems in real systems.

Hou, L, Yin, G, Liu, M, Zhou, J, Zheng, Y, Gao, J, Zong, H, Yang, Y, Gao, L & Tong, C 2015, 'Effects of Sulfamethazine on Denitrification and the Associated N₂O Release in Estuarine and Coastal Sediments', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 326-333.
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Denitrification is an important pathway of nitrogen removal and nitrous oxide (N2O) production in estuarine and coastal ecosystems, and plays a significant role in counteracting aquatic eutrophication induced by excessive nitrogen loads. Estuarine and coastal environments also suffer from increasing antibiotic contamination because of the growing production and usage of antibiotics. In this study, sediment slurry incubation experiments were conducted to determine the influence of sulfamethazine (SMT, a sulphonamide antibiotic) on denitrification and the associated N2O production. Genes important for denitrification and antibiotic resistance were quantified to investigate the microbial physiological mechanisms underlying SMT's effects on denitrification. SMT was observed to significantly inhibit denitrification rates, but increasing concentrations of SMT enhanced N2O release rates. The negative exponential relationships between denitrifying gene abundances and SMT concentrations showed that SMT reduced denitrification rates by restricting the growth of denitrifying bacteria, although the presence of the antibiotic resistance gene was detected during the incubation period. These results imply that the wide occurrence of residual antibiotics in estuarine and coastal ecosystems may influence eutrophication control, greenhouse effects, and atmospheric ozone depletion by inhibiting denitrification and stimulating the release of N2O.

Hoven, E & Van Bergen, T 2015, 'Tangible Cooperative Gestures: Improving Control and Initiative in Digital Photo Sharing', Machines, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 268-295.
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This paper focuses on co-present digital photo sharing on a notebook and investigates how this could be supported. While analyzing the current digital photo sharing situation we noticed that there was a high threshold for visitors to take control of the personal computer of the photo owner, resulting in inequity of participation. It was assumed that visitors would have the opportunity to interact with the notebook more freely if this threshold was lowered by distributing the user interface and creating a more public, instead of personal, interaction space. This, in turn, could make them feel more involved and in control during a session, creating a more enjoyable experience. To test these assumptions a design prototype was created that stimulates participants to use tangible artifacts for cooperative gestures, a promising direction for the future of HCI. The situation with the cooperative gestures was compared with the regular digital photo sharing situation, which makes use of a keyboard. In dyads, visitors felt more involved and in control in the design prototype cooperative gestures condition (especially during storytelling), resulting in a more enjoyable digital photo sharing experience.

Hsieh, M-H & Watanabe, S 2015, 'Channel Simulation and Coded Source Compression', IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 6609-6619, Nov. 2016, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 6609-6619.
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Coded source compression, also known as source compression with helpers, hasbeen a major variant of distributed source compression, but has hithertoreceived little attention in the quantum regime. This work treats and solvesthe corresponding quantum coded source compression through an observation thatconnects coded source compression with channel simulation. First, we considerclassical source coding with quantum side information where the quantum sideinformation is observed by a helper and sent to the decoder via a classicalchannel. We derive a single-letter characterization of the achievable rateregion for this problem. The direct coding theorem of our result is proved viathe measurement compression theory of Winter, a quantum-to-classical channelsimulation. Our result reveals that a helper's scheme which separately conductsa measurement and a compression is suboptimal, and measurement compressionseems necessary to achieve the optimal rate region. We then study coded sourcecompression in the fully quantum regime, where two different scenarios areconsidered depending on the types of communication channels between thelegitimate source and the receiver. We further allow entanglement assistancefrom the quantum helper in both scenarios. We characterize the involved quantumresources, and derive single-letter expressions of the achievable rate region.The direct coding proofs are based on well-known quantum protocols, the quantumstate merging protocol and the fully quantum Slepian-Wolf protocol, togetherwith the quantum reverse Shannon theorem.

Hsu, B-W, Wang, M-JJ, Chen, C-Y & Chen, F 2015, 'Effective Indices for Monitoring Mental Workload While Performing Multiple Tasks', Perceptual and Motor Skills, vol. 121, no. 1, pp. 94-117.
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This study identified several physiological indices that can accurately monitor mental workload while participants performed multiple tasks with the strategy of maintaining stable performance and maximizing accuracy. Thirty male participants completed three 10-min. simulated multitasks: MATB (Multi-Attribute Task Battery) with three workload levels. Twenty-five commonly used mental workload measures were collected, including heart rate, 12 HRV (heart rate variability), 10 EEG (electroencephalography) indices (α, β, θ, α/θ, θ/β from O1-O2 and F4-C4), and two subjective measures. Analyses of index sensitivity showed that two EEG indices, θ and α/θ (F4-C4), one time-domain HRV-SDNN (standard deviation of inter-beat intervals), and four frequency-domain HRV: VLF (very low frequency), LF (low frequency), %HF (percentage of high frequency), and LF/HF were sensitive to differentiate high workload. EEG α/θ (F4-C4) and LF/HF were most effective for monitoring high mental workload. LF/HF showed the highest correlations with other physiological indices. EEG α/θ (F4-C4) showed strong correlations with subjective measures across diff erent mental workload levels. Operation strategy would affect the sensitivity of EEG α (F4-C4) and HF.

Hu, H, Choo, Y, Feng, X & Osuji, CO 2015, 'Physical Continuity and Vertical Alignment of Block Copolymer Domains by Kinetically Controlled Electrospray Deposition', Macromolecular Rapid Communications, vol. 36, no. 13, pp. 1290-1296.
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The fabrication of block copolymer (BCP) thin films is reported with vertically aligned cylindrical domains using continuous electrospray deposition onto bare wafer surfaces. The out‐of‐plane orientation of hexagonally packed styrene cylinders is achieved in the “fast‐wet” deposition regime in which rapid evaporation of the solvent in deposited droplets of polymer solution drives the vertical alignment of the self‐assembled structure. Thermally activated crosslinking of the polybutadiene matrix provides kinetic control of the morphology, freezing the vertical alignment and preventing relaxation of the system to its preferred parallel orientation on the nontreated substrate. Physically continuous vertically oriented domains can be achieved over several micrometers of film thickness. The ability of electrospray deposition to fabricate well‐ordered and aligned BCP films on nontreated substrates, the low amount of material used relative to spin‐coating, and the continuous nature of the deposition may open up new opportunities for BCP thin films.image

Hu, S & Yuan, X 2015, 'Reflections inspired by the debate on conventional and off-pump coronary artery bypass graft', The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, vol. 150, no. 3, pp. 734-735.
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Hu, Y, Zhang, J, Cao, W, Wu, J, Tian, GY, Finney, SJ & Kirtley, JL 2015, 'Online Two-Section PV Array Fault Diagnosis With Optimized Voltage Sensor Locations', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 7237-7246.
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Huang, C-S, Pal, NR, Chuang, C-H & Lin, C-T 2015, 'Identifying changes in EEG information transfer during drowsy driving by transfer entropy', Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 9, no. OCTOBER.
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© 2015 Huang, Pal, Chuang and Lin. Drowsy driving is a major cause of automobile accidents. Previous studies used neuroimaging based approaches such as analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) activities to understand the brain dynamics of different cortical regions during drowsy driving. However, the coupling between brain regions responding to this vigilance change is still unclear. To have a comprehensive understanding of neural mechanisms underlying drowsy driving, in this study we use transfer entropy, a model-free measure of effective connectivity based on information theory. We investigate the pattern of information transfer between brain regions when the vigilance level, which is derived from the driving performance, changes from alertness to drowsiness. Results show that the couplings between pairs of frontal, central, and parietal areas increased at the intermediate level of vigilance, which suggests that an enhancement of the cortico-cortical interaction is necessary to maintain the task performance and prevent behavioral lapses. Additionally, the occipital-related connectivity magnitudes monotonically decreases as the vigilance level declines, which further supports the cortical gating of sensory stimuli during drowsiness. Neurophysiological evidence of mutual relationships between brain regions measured by transfer entropy might enhance the understanding of cortico-cortical communication during drowsy driving.

Huang, L, Cheng, J, Li, X, Yuan, D, Ni, W, Qu, G, Guan, Q, Zhang, Y & Wang, B 2015, 'Sulfur quantum dots wrapped by conductive polymer shell with internal void spaces for high-performance lithium–sulfur batteries', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 3, no. 7, pp. 4049-4057.
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Novel core–shell sulfur quantum dots/PVK nanocomposites were synthesized by a facile two-step dissolution–precipitation method.

Huang, M, Ouyang, L, Wang, H, Liu, J & Zhu, M 2015, 'Hydrogen generation by hydrolysis of MgH2 and enhanced kinetics performance of ammonium chloride introducing', International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 40, no. 18, pp. 6145-6150.
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Huang, TN, Yi, X, Boon, CC, He, X, Feng, G, Lim, WM & Zhu, X 2015, 'A CMOS W-Band <formula formulatype='inline'> <tex Notation='TeX'>$4{\times}$</tex></formula> Quasi-Subharmonic Mixer', IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 385-387.
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Huang, W, Huang, L, Sheng, D & Sloan, SW 2015, 'DEM modelling of shear localization in a plane Couette shear test of granular materials', Acta Geotechnica, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 389-397.
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Huang, X, Cheng, H, Li, R-H, Qin, L & Yu, JX 2015, 'Top-K structural diversity search in large networks.', VLDB J., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 319-343.
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© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Social contagion depicts a process of information (e.g., fads, opinions, news) diffusion in the online social networks. A recent study reports that in a social contagion process, the probability of contagion is tightly controlled by the number of connected components in an individual’s neighborhood. Such a number is termed structural diversity of an individual, and it is shown to be a key predictor in the social contagion process. Based on this, a fundamental issue in a social network is to find top-$$k$$k users with the highest structural diversities. In this paper, we, for the first time, study the top-$$k$$k structural diversity search problem in a large network. Specifically, we study two types of structural diversity measures, namely, component-based structural diversity measure and core-based structural diversity measure. For component-based structural diversity, we develop an effective upper bound of structural diversity for pruning the search space. The upper bound can be incrementally refined in the search process. Based on such upper bound, we propose an efficient framework for top-$$k$$k structural diversity search. To further speed up the structural diversity evaluation in the search process, several carefully devised search strategies are proposed. We also design efficient techniques to handle frequent updates in dynamic networks and maintain the top-$$k$$k results. We further show how the techniques proposed in component-based structural diversity measure can be extended to handle the core-based structural diversity measure. Extensive experimental studies are conducted in real-world large networks and synthetic graphs, and the results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Huang, X, Zhang, JA & Guo, YJ 2015, 'Out-of-band emission reduction and a unified framework for precoded OFDM', IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 151-159.
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© 1979-2012 IEEE. OFDM has been regarded as a promising candidate for use in cognitive radio systems with dynamic spectrum reuse capability. However, conventional OFDM has significant OOBE, which can cause severe interference to systems operating in adjacent frequency bands. In addition to conventional techniques such as spectral shaping filtering, guard band insertion, and time domain windowing, new OOBE reduction techniques, including cancellation carrier and spectral precoding, have been proposed in recent years. This article reviews various OOBE reduction techniques and proposes a generalized lowcomplexity OOBE reduction framework for discrete Fourier transform precoded OFDM. With the allocation of explicit frequency domain cancellation subcarriers and data domain cancellation symbols, the proposed framework enables various configurations to achieve significant OOBE reduction with low implementation complexity, and provides flexibility in balancing OOBE reduction and other performance metrics such as peak-to-average power ratio.

Huang, Y, Hong, G & Huang, R 2015, 'Investigation to charge cooling effect and combustion characteristics of ethanol direct injection in a gasoline port injection engine', Applied Energy, vol. 160, pp. 244-254.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Ethanol direct injection has the potentials to increase the engine compression ratio and thermal efficiency by taking advantages of ethanol fuel such as the high octane number and latent heat. In this study, CFD modelling and experiments were carried out to investigate the charge cooling effect and combustion characteristics of ethanol direct injection in a gasoline port injection (EDI. +. GPI) engine. Experiments were conducted on a single-cylinder spark ignition engine equipped with EDI. +. GPI over a full range of ethanol ratio from 0% (GPI only) to 100% (EDI only). Multidimensional CFD simulations to the partially premixed dual-fuel spray combustion were performed to understand the experimental results. The simulations were verified by comparing with the experimental results. Simulation results showed that the overall cooling effect of EDI was enhanced with the increase of ethanol ratio from 0% to 58%, but was not enhanced with further increase of ethanol ratio. When the ethanol ratio was greater than 58%, a large number of liquid ethanol droplets were left in the combustion chamber during combustion and fuel impingement on the cylinder wall became significant, leading to local overcooling in the near-wall region and over-lean mixture at the spark plug gap. As a consequence, the CO and HC emissions increased due to incomplete combustion. Compared with GPI only, the faster flame speed of ethanol fuel contributed to the greater peak cylinder pressure of EDI. +. GPI condition, which resulted in higher power output and thermal efficiency. Meanwhile, the mixture became leaner with the increase of ethanol ratio. As a result, the IMEP was increased, combustion initiation duration and major combustion duration were decreased when ethanol ratio was in 0-58%. The combustion performance was deteriorated when ethanol ratio was greater than 58%. Experimental and numerical results showed that the IMEP, thermal efficiency and emissions of this...

Huang, Y, Hong, G & Huang, R 2015, 'Numerical investigation to the dual-fuel spray combustion process in an ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI+GPI) engine', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 92, pp. 275-286.
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©2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI + GPI) is a new technology to make the use of ethanol fuel more effective and efficient in spark ignition engines. Multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics modelling was conducted on an EDI + GPI engine in both single and dual fuelled conditions. The in-cylinder flow field was solved in the realizable k-ε turbulence model with detailed engine geometry. The temporal and spatial distributions of the liquid and vapour fuels were simulated with the spray breakup and evaporation models. The combustion process was modelled with the partially premixed combustion concept in which both mixture fraction and progress variable were solved. The three-dimensional and five-dimensional presumed Probability Density Function (PDF) look-up tables were used to model the single-fraction-mixture and two-fraction-mixture turbulence-chemistry interactions respectively. The model was verified by comparing the numerical and experimental results of spray pattern and cylinder pressure. The simulation results showed that the combustion process of EDI + GPI dual-fuelled condition was partially premixed combustion because of the low evaporation rate of ethanol spray in low temperature environment before combustion. Compared with GPI only, the higher flame speed of ethanol fuel contributed to the greater pressure rise rate and maximum cylinder pressure in EDI + GPI condition, which consequently resulted in higher power output and thermal efficiency. The lower adiabatic flame temperature of ethanol, partially premixed combustion mode and stronger cooling effect of ethanol direct injection in EDI + GPI led to the reduced combustion temperature which contributed to the decrease of NO emission. Among these three factors, the lower adiabatic flame temperature and partially premixed combustion mode were the dominating factors that resulted in the low combustion temperature of EDI + GPI....

Hussain, S, Roy, NC, Hossain, MA & Saha, SC 2015, 'Effect of Fluctuating Surface Heat and Mass Flux on Natural Convection Flow along a Vertical Flat Plate', Mathematical Problems in Engineering, vol. 2015, pp. 1-15.
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An investigation has been carried on double diffusive effect on boundary layer flow due to small amplitude oscillation in surface heat and mass flux. Extensive parametric simulations were performed in order to elucidate the effects of some important parameters, that is, Prandtl number, Schmidt number, and Buoyancy ratio parameter on flow field in conjunction with heat and mass transfer. Asymptotic solutions for low and high frequencies are obtained for the conveniently transformed governing coupled equations. Solutions are also obtained for wide ranged value of the frequency parameters. Comparisons between the asymptotic and wide ranged values are made in terms of the amplitudes and phases of the shear stress, surface heat transfer, and surface mass transfer. It has been found that the amplitudes and phase angles obtained from asymptotic solutions are found in good agreement with the finite difference solutions obtained for wide ranged value of the frequency parameter.

Hussaini, SKK, Indraratna, B & Vinod, JS 2015, 'Application of Optical-Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors in Monitoring the Rail Track Deformations', Geotechnical Testing Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 20140123-20140123.
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Hussaini, SKK, Indraratna, B & Vinod, JS 2015, 'Performance assessment of geogrid-reinforced railroad ballast during cyclic loading', Transportation Geotechnics, vol. 2, pp. 99-107.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Recently, rail practitioners have resorted to the use of geogrids as a low-cost solution to stabilise ballast. In view of this, large-scale cyclic tests have been conducted on reinforced ballast using a modified process simulation test (MPST) apparatus at a loading frequency of 20. Hz, with geogrid placed at the subballast-ballast interface and within the ballast. Fresh latite basalt having a mean particle size of 35. mm and geogrids with different aperture sizes was used. The experimental results indicate that the geogrid arrests the lateral spreading of ballast, reduces the extent of permanent vertical settlement and minimises the particle breakage. However, the in track performance is shown to be influenced by the shear behaviour at the ballast-geogrid interface, wherein the extent of both lateral and vertical deformation reduce with the increase in shear strength at the ballast-geogrid interface. Moreover, the geogrid also helps in minimising the extent of differential track settlement that arises due to the difference in sleeper-ballast contact stress along the track length. The efficiency of geogrid is found to be identical at vertical stresses of 230 and 460. kPa. These test results highlight the role of geogrid in stabilising ballast, thus encouraging its use in railway applications.

Hyde, PJ, Tipper, J, Fisher, J & Hall, RM 2015, 'Wear and biological effects of a semi-constrained total disc replacement subject to modified ISO standard test conditions', Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, vol. 44, pp. 43-52.
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Iacopi, F, Mishra, N, Cunning, BV, Goding, D, Dimitrijev, S, Brock, R, Dauskardt, RH, Wood, B & Boeckl, J 2015, 'A catalytic alloy approach for graphene on epitaxial SiC on silicon wafers', Journal of Materials Research, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 609-616.
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Abstract

Iacopi, F, Van Hove, M, Charles, M & Endo, K 2015, 'Power electronics with wide bandgap materials: Toward greener, more efficient technologies', MRS Bulletin, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 390-395.
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Abstract

Idrees, MO, Saeidi, V, Pradhan, B & Shafri, HZM 2015, 'Maximizing Urban Features Extraction from Multi-sensor Data with Dempster-Shafer Theory and HSI Data Fusion Techniques', Asian Journal of Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2321–0893), vol. 3, no. 02.

Imtenan, S, Ashrafur Rahman, SM, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M & Kalam, MA 2015, 'Effect of dynamic injection pressure on performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a compression ignition engine', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 52, pp. 1205-1211.
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Imtenan, S, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M & Rizwanul Fattah, IM 2015, 'Evaluation of n-butanol as an oxygenated additive to improve combustion-emission-performance characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled with a diesel-calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel blend', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 22, pp. 17160-17170.
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Oxygenated additives modify the physicochemical properties of the biodiesel–diesel blends which influences the combustion mechanism in a way that improves the performance and emission characteristics significantly.

Imtenan, S, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Rizwanul Fattah, IM, Sajjad, H & Arbab, MI 2015, 'Effect of n-butanol and diethyl ether as oxygenated additives on combustion–emission-performance characteristics of a multiple cylinder diesel engine fuelled with diesel–jatropha biodiesel blend', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 94, pp. 84-94.
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Indraratna, B 2015, 'Editorial', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Ground Improvement, vol. 168, no. 1, pp. 1-2.
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Indraratna, B, Biabani, MM & Nimbalkar, S 2015, 'Behavior of Geocell-Reinforced Subballast Subjected to Cyclic Loading in Plane-Strain Condition', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 141, no. 1, pp. 04014081-04014081.
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Indraratna, B, Heitor, A & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Ground improvement methods for port infrastructure expansion', Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 125-130.
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The demand for reliable and efficient transport infrastructure is vital to sustain Australia's economic growth and quality of life. Due to the forecasted increase in the freight trade demand, existing Ports will need to undergo major expansion, e.g. for accommodating berths suitable for bulk cargoes and container handling. To maximise the use of available land, typically port expansions projects involve land reclamation which includes the use of dredged materials (e.g. Port of Brisbane) or other granular fill materials locally available (e.g. Port Kembla). In both situations, ground improvement methods need to be implemented to ensure the fills and the foundations for the port infrastructure have sufficient shear strength and bearing capacity to comply with serviceability requirements in terms of settlement and lateral displacements. In this paper, typical ground improvement methods employed in Port infrastructure are described and their application in two different Australian Port Infrastructure projects is discussed.

Indraratna, B, Israr, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2015, 'Geometrical Method for Evaluating the Internal Instability of Granular Filters Based on Constriction Size Distribution', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 141, no. 10, pp. 04015045-04015045.
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Indraratna, B, Kumara, C, Zhu, S-P & Sloan, S 2015, 'Mathematical Modeling and Experimental Verification of Fluid Flow through Deformable Rough Rock Joints', International Journal of Geomechanics, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 04014065-04014065.
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Indraratna, B, Mahdi Biabani, M & Nimbalkar, S 2015, 'Closure to “Behavior of Geocell-Reinforced Subballast Subjected to Cyclic Loading in Plane-Strain Condition” by Buddhima Indraratna, M. Mahdi Biabani, and Sanjay Nimbalkar', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 141, no. 10, pp. 07015028-07015028.
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Indraratna, B, Ngo, NT, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Sloan, SW 2015, 'Coupled discrete element–finite difference method for analysing the load-deformation behaviour of a single stone column in soft soil', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 63, pp. 267-278.
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Experimental studies and numerical modelling of the deformation of soft clay stabilised by stone columns have been conducted over the past few decades. Continuum-based numerical models have provided valuable insight into the prediction of settlement, lateral deformation, and stress and strain-rate dependent behaviour of stone columns at a macroscopic scale, but because they consist of granular material such as crushed rock, gravel, and waste rock aggregates, their behaviour is influenced by inter-particle micromechanics and cannot be modelled properly using these models. In this paper a novel coupled model of the discrete element method (DEM) and finite difference method (FDM) is presented to study the deformation of a single stone column installed in soft ground. In this coupled discrete-continuum method, PFC2D and FLAC were used to model the interaction between the stone column and surrounding clay, respectively. The contact forces at the interface between the two zones were determined through a socket connection that allows the DEM to transfer forces and moments to the FDM and vice versa. The predicted results were comparable to the data measured experimentally, showing that the coupled discrete-continuum model proposed in this study could simulate the load-deformation behaviour of a stone column installed in clay. The contact force distribution and shear stress contour developed in the stone column and surrounding clay were captured to provide a better understanding of the load-deformation behaviour of the stone column.

Indraratna, B, Ni, J, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Zhong, R 2015, 'A partially drained model for soft soils under cyclic loading considering cyclic parameter degradation', Australian Geomechanics Journal, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 89-95.
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Cyclic loading induced foundation instabilities including loss of bearing capacity and excessive plastic deformation of the subgrade are among the major concerns for the design and construction of transport infrastructure. There were limited studies on the modelling of cyclic loading of soft soils due to its complexities compared to static loading. In this study, a model for soft clays under partially drained condition subject to cyclic triaxial loading has been developed based on the Modified Cam-clay theory. The yield surface contraction for elastic unloading was governed by two additional cyclic degradation parameters to the modified Cam-clay model. This model was validated using the results of a series of undrained and partially drained cyclic triaxial loading tests on kaolin. A good agreement between the numerical prediction and the measured excess pore pressures was obtained. Furthermore, the factors which influence the cyclic performance of soft soils, e.g. the cyclic stress ratios, the anisotropic consolidation stress and the coefficient of consolidation were investigated. This model was then applied to the consolidation of soft soils under cyclic loading, which represents the application of partially penetrated vertical drains for road and rail infrastructure, at the soft soil sites for a rail project in Sandgate, NSW. The objective of the partially penetrated drains within this deep estuarine soil layer was to consolidate the shallow soft clays and stabilise the new built tracks.

Indraratna, B, Pathirage, U & Banasiak, L 2015, 'A review of acidic groundwater remediation in the shoalhaven floodplain in Australia', Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 41-46.
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Acid sulfate soils can be found around low-lying coastal floodplains. Acidic groundwater generated from acid sulfate soils creates adverse conditions to vegetation and aquatic life and corrodes steel and concrete infrastructure. As long as these soils are undisturbed and below the groundwater table, they are chemically inert. Therefore, it is important to maintain the groundwater table above the sulfidic soil horizon. Modified floodgates and weirs have been implemented in these low-lying areas to improve water quality. Nevertheless, these methods are not promising in low-lying areas because of the risk of flooding. As a solution, a pilot-scale permeable reactive barrier was installed and has proven to be a promising technology for long-term remediation. This paper presents a review of the above mentioned methods used for acidic groundwater remediation in coastal Australia with detailed field verification data.

Indraratna, B, Perera, D, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Kelly, R 2015, 'Soil disturbance analysis due to vertical drain installation', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 168, no. 3, pp. 236-246.
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The installation of drains creates a disturbed region known as a smear zone where the change in the clay structure affects the horizontal permeability and compressibility. The parameters required to characterise the smear effect are the extent of the smear zone and the ratio of the horizontal coefficient of permeability in the undisturbed zone and in the smear zone. Only limited studies have been carried out on different aspects of soil disturbance due to driving vertical drains and its effects on the subsequent consolidation. In this paper the disturbed zone around a rectangular mandrel was characterised using soil samples obtained from the soft clay layer at various locations beneath an embankment built at Ballina, Australia, where vertical drains were installed. By determining the change in the coefficient of permeability, the water content and volume compressibility across the smear zone, the effects of soil disturbance on consolidation due to the installation of drains can be quantified using the available numerical model.

Indraratna, B, Sun, QD & Nimbalkar, S 2015, 'Observed and predicted behaviour of rail ballast under monotonic loading capturing particle breakage', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 73-86.
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A substantial amount of experimental evidence suggests that the critical state envelope for ballast is nonlinear, especially at low confining pressure. To study the implications of this nonlinearity and the associated role of particle breakage, monotonically loaded drained triaxial tests were conducted using a large-scale cylindrical triaxial apparatus. A nonlinear critical state envelope is determined in the q–p′ and υ–lnp′ planes. Mathematical expressions for critical state stress ratio and specific volume are proposed to incorporate the evolution of particle breakage during monotonic shearing. In this paper, an elastoplastic constitutive model based on the critical state soil mechanics framework is presented to capture the salient aspects of stress–strain behaviour and degradation of ballast. Constitutive parameters were conveniently determined from large-scale laboratory tests. The model is able to predict the monotonic shear behaviour of ballast corroborating with the laboratory measurements. The proposed model is further validated using experimental results available from past independent studies.

Indraratna, B, Thirukumaran, S, Brown, ET & Zhu, S-P 2015, 'Modelling the Shear Behaviour of Rock Joints with Asperity Damage Under Constant Normal Stiffness', Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 179-195.
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Iqbal, MA, Varman, M, Hassan, MH, Kalam, MA, Hossain, S & Sayeed, I 2015, 'Tailoring fuel properties using jatropha, palm and coconut biodiesel to improve CI engine performance and emission characteristics', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 101, pp. 262-270.
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Ismail, MS, Moghavvemi, M, Mahlia, TMI, Muttaqi, KM & Moghavvemi, S 2015, 'Effective utilization of excess energy in standalone hybrid renewable energy systems for improving comfort ability and reducing cost of energy: A review and analysis', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 42, pp. 726-734.
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Ivanyos, G, Karpinski, M, Qiao, Y & Santha, M 2015, 'Generalized Wong sequences and their applications to Edmonds' problems', Journal of Computer and System Sciences, vol. 81, no. 7, pp. 1373-1386.
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© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Given a linear subspace B of the n×n matrices over some field F, we consider the following problems: symbolic matrix rank (SMR) asks to determine the maximum rank among matrices in B, while symbolic determinant identity testing (SDIT) asks to decide whether there exists a nonsingular matrix in B. The constructive versions of these problems ask to find a matrix of maximum rank, respectively a nonsingular matrix, if there exists one. Our first algorithm solves the constructive SMR when B is spanned by unknown rank one matrices, answering an open question of Gurvits. Our second algorithm solves the constructive SDIT when B is spanned by triangularizable matrices. (The triangularization is not given explicitly.) Both algorithms work over fields of size ≥n+1. Our framework is based on generalizing Wong sequences, a classical method to deal with pairs of matrices, to pairs of matrix spaces.

Jacobs, DA & Waldron, KJ 2015, 'Modeling Inelastic Collisions With the Hunt–Crossley Model Using the Energetic Coefficient of Restitution', Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics, vol. 10, no. 2.
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Modeling collision and contact accurately is essential to simulating many multibody systems. The three parameter Hunt–Crossley model is a continuous collision model for representing the contact dynamics of viscoelastic systems. By augmenting Hertz's elastic theory with a nonlinear damper, Hunt and Crossley captured part of the viscoelastic and velocity dependent behavior found in many systems. In the Hunt–Crossley model, the power parameter and the elastic coefficient can be related to the physical properties through Hertz's elastic theory but the damping coefficient cannot. Generally, the damping coefficient is related to an empirical measurement, the coefficient of restitution. Over the past few decades, several authors have posed relationships between the coefficient of restitution and the damping constant but key challenges remain. In the first portion of the paper, we derive an approximate expression for Stronge's (energetic) coefficient of restitution that has better accuracy for high velocities and low coefficient of restitution values than the published solutions based on Taylor series approximations. We present one method for selecting the model parameters from five empirical measurements using a genetic optimization routine. In the second portion of the paper, we investigate the application of the Hunt–Crossley model to an inhomogeneous system of a rubber covered aluminum sphere on a plate. Although this system does not fit the inclusion criteria for the Hunt–Crossley, it is representative of many systems of interest where authors have chosen the Hunt–Crossley model to represent the contact dynamics. The results show that a fitted model well predicts collision behavior at low values of the coefficient of restitution.

Jahanshiri, E, bin Mohamed Shariff, AR, Amiri, F, Soom, MAM, Wayayokb, A, Buyonga, T & Pradhan, B 2015, 'Spatial soil analysis using geostatistical analysis and map Algebra', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 11, pp. 9775-9788.
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Jamil, S, Loganathan, P, Kazner, C & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Forward osmosis treatment for volume minimisation of reverse osmosis concentrate from a water reclamation plant and removal of organic micropollutants', DESALINATION, vol. 372, pp. 32-38.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC) produced in water reclamation and desalination plants can endanger the environment if it is not treated before discharge. Volume minimisation of ROC can help in its easy disposal. The study examined the use of forward osmosis (FO) with and without granular activated carbon (GAC) fixed-bed adsorption pretreatment for volume minimisation of ROC and removal of organic micropollutants. Five repeated FO steps using 2 or 3. M NaCl as the draw solution reduced the volume of ROC to 8%. With each successive step the flux decreased due to membrane fouling and scaling caused by increased concentrations of organics and inorganics resulting from volume reduction of ROC. However, flux decline was arrested in the second or third step by reducing the pH of the feed solution from 7.0 to 5.0. FO treatment rejected 9 of the 18 organic micropollutants at >. 82% and GAC treatment removed 15 of them at >. 82%. GAC pre-treatment followed by FO treatment removed almost all the organic micropollutants from the ROC. GAC pretreatment also reduced total organic carbon concentration in ROC by adsorption, thus controlling membrane fouling.

Janjua, NK, Hussain, OK, Hussain, FK & Chang, E 2015, 'Philosophical and Logic-Based Argumentation-Driven Reasoning Approaches and their Realization on the WWW: A Survey', The Computer Journal, vol. 58, no. 9, pp. 1967-1999.
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Argumentation is the practice of systematic conscious reasoning involving the construction and evaluation of arguments to justify or support a particular conclusion. This article discusses, compares, contrasts and categorizes existing argumentation-based frameworks and applications as either philosophical or logic-based, and provides critical analysis that emphasizes the structure of arguments and the interactions between them. This review compares and contrasts the frameworks and applications of argumentation-based approaches on Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web, and subsequently highlights the importance and challenges of attaining monological argumentation on the Semantic Web.

Jayawardhana, M, Zhu, X, Liyanapathirana, R & Gunawardana, U 2015, 'An experimental study for decentralized damage detection of beam structures using wireless sensor networks', Structural Monitoring and Maintenance, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 237-252.
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© 2015 Techno-Press, Ltd. This paper addresses the issue of reliability and performance in wireless sensor networks (WSN) based structural health monitoring (SHM), particularly with decentralized damage identification techniques. Two decentralized damage identification algorithms, namely, the autoregressive (AR) model based damage index and the Wiener filter method are developed for structural damage detection. The ambient and impact testing have been carried out on the steel beam structure in the laboratory. Seven wireless sensors are installed evenly along the steel beam and seven wired sensor are also installed on the beam to monitor the dynamic responses as comparison. The results showed that wireless measurements performed very much similar to wired measurements in detecting and localizing damages in the steel beam. Therefore, apart from the usual advantages of cost effectiveness, manageability, modularity etc., wireless sensors can be considered a possible substitute for wired sensors in SHM systems.

Jayawardhana, M, Zhu, X, Liyanapathirana, R & Gunawardana, U 2015, 'Statistical Damage Sensitive Feature for Structural Damage Detection Using AR Model Coefficients', Advances in Structural Engineering, vol. 18, no. 10, pp. 1551-1562.
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Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and damage detection techniques have captured much interest and attention of researchers and structural engineers owing to their promising ability to provide spatial and quantitative information regarding structural damage and the performance of a structure during its life-cycle. With the development of smart sensors and communication technologies, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has empowered the advancement in SHM. Recently, time series models have been widely used for structural damage detection due to the sensitivity of the model coefficients and residual errors to the damages in the structure. This paper presents a simple index that is computed using the Auto-Regressive (AR) model coefficients as an effective damage sensitive feature (DSF) for the detection of structural damage. Based on this feature, a damage identification method is developed. The Fisher information criterion of the computed DSF is used to statistically decide on the location of damage. This method has been implemented in a simulation environment and the verification of its accuracy in structural damage detection has been carried out experimentally. Experimental data is obtained using wireless sensors from a series of tests performed on a steel beam. The novel damage feature combined with the Fisher criterion for statistical evaluation has shown potential in effective structural damage detection.

Jebur, MN, Pradhan, B & Tehrany, MS 2015, 'Manifestation of LiDAR-Derived Parameters in the Spatial Prediction of Landslides Using Novel Ensemble Evidential Belief Functions and Support Vector Machine Models in GIS', IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 674-690.
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Jebur, MN, Pradhan, B & Tehrany, MS 2015, 'Using ALOS PALSAR derived high-resolution DInSAR to detect slow-moving landslides in tropical forest: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia', Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, vol. 6, no. 8, pp. 741-759.
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Jebur, MN, Pradhan, B, Shafri, HZM, Yusoff, ZM & Tehrany, MS 2015, 'An integrated user-friendly ArcMAP tool for bivariate statistical modelling in geoscience applications', Geoscientific Model Development, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 881-891.
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Abstract. Modelling and classification difficulties are fundamental issues in natural hazard assessment. A geographic information system (GIS) is a domain that requires users to use various tools to perform different types of spatial modelling. Bivariate statistical analysis (BSA) assists in hazard modelling. To perform this analysis, several calculations are required and the user has to transfer data from one format to another. Most researchers perform these calculations manually by using Microsoft Excel or other programs. This process is time-consuming and carries a degree of uncertainty. The lack of proper tools to implement BSA in a GIS environment prompted this study. In this paper, a user-friendly tool, bivariate statistical modeler (BSM), for BSA technique is proposed. Three popular BSA techniques, such as frequency ratio, weight-of-evidence (WoE), and evidential belief function (EBF) models, are applied in the newly proposed ArcMAP tool. This tool is programmed in Python and created by a simple graphical user interface (GUI), which facilitates the improvement of model performance. The proposed tool implements BSA automatically, thus allowing numerous variables to be examined. To validate the capability and accuracy of this program, a pilot test area in Malaysia is selected and all three models are tested by using the proposed program. Area under curve (AUC) is used to measure the success rate and prediction rate. Results demonstrate that the proposed program executes BSA with reasonable accuracy. The proposed BSA tool can be used in numerous applications, such as natural hazard, mineral potential, hydrological, and other engineering and environmental applications.

Jeong, S & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Practical use of standard pore blocking index as an indicator of biofouling potential in seawater desalination', Desalination, vol. 365, pp. 8-14.
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Jeong, Y-S, Shyu, M-L, Xu, G & Wagner, RR 2015, 'Guest Editorial: Advanced Technologies and Services for Multimedia Big Data Processing', Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 74, no. 10, pp. 3413-3418.
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Ji, E, Weickert, CS, Lenroot, R, Catts, SV, Vercammen, A, White, C, Gur, RE & Weickert, TW 2015, 'Endogenous testosterone levels are associated with neural activity in men with schizophrenia during facial emotion processing', Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 286, pp. 338-346.
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Ji, L-Y, Guo, YJ, Qin, P-Y, Gong, S-X & Mittra, R 2015, 'A Reconfigurable Partially Reflective Surface (PRS) Antenna for Beam Steering', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 2387-2395.
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The design of a novel partially reflective surface (PRS) antenna with the capability of beam steering is presented in this paper. The beam steering is realized by employing a reconfigurable PRS structure to achieve a changeable reflection phase as well as using a phased array as the source to excite the PRS antenna. A prototype antenna including the biasing network is fabricated and measured. It achieves a consistent beam steering from -15 degrees to 15 degrees with respect to the broadside direction across an overlapped frequency range from 5.5 to 5.7 GHz with measured realized gains over 12 dBi. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results for the input reflection coefficients and radiation patterns is achieved, which validates the feasibility of the design principle. Compared with other beam steering PRS antennas, the proposed one enables a larger beam steering angle with comparable gains, requires a simpler biasing network, and is more compact.

Jiang, H, Wang, J, Dong, Y & Lu, H 2015, 'Comprehensive assessment of wind resources and the low-carbon economy: An empirical study in the Alxa and Xilin Gol Leagues of inner Mongolia, China', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 50, pp. 1304-1319.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Due to atmospheric pollution from fossil fuels, the reduction of wind turbine costs, and the rise of the low-carbon economy, wind energy conversion systems have become one of the most significant forms of new energy in China. Therefore, to reduce investment risk and maximize profits, it is necessary to assess wind resources before building large wind farms. This paper develops a comprehensive system containing four steps to evaluate the potential of wind resources at two sites in Xilin Gol League and at additional two sites in Alxa League of Inner Mongolia, China: (1) By calculating the total scores of three indexes, including the effective wind power density (EWPD), wind available time (WAT) and population density (PD), an indexes method is applied to assess the theoretical wind energy potential from 2001 to 2010. (2) To judge the fluctuations in the wind speed, the Fisher optimal partition method and the Jonckheere-Terpstra test are used to analyze the changes in the average monthly and yearly wind speeds from 2001 to 2010. (3) Three probability density functions, i.e., Weibull, Gamma and Lognormal, are used to assess the wind speed frequency distribution in 2010. To enhance the evaluation accuracy, three intelligent optimization parameter estimation algorithms, i.e., the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO), differential evolution algorithm (DE) and ant colony algorithm (ACO), are used to estimate the parameters of these distributions. (4) It is helpful to analyze the wind characteristics when assessing wind resources and selecting wind turbines. Therefore, the optimal frequency distribution based on the best parameter estimation method can be chosen to calculate the wind power density, the most probable wind speed and the wind speed carrying the maximum energy. The experimental results show that Site 1 and Site 4 are more suitable for large wind farms than Site 2 or Site 3.

Jiang, J, Wen, S, Yu, S, Xiang, Y & Zhou, W 2015, 'K-Center: An Approach on the Multi-Source Identification of Information Diffusion', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, vol. 10, no. 12, pp. 2616-2626.
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Jiang, P, Ma, X & Liu, F 2015, 'A New Hybrid Model Based on Data Preprocessing and an Intelligent Optimization Algorithm for Electrical Power System Forecasting', Mathematical Problems in Engineering, vol. 2015, pp. 1-17.
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The establishment of electrical power system cannot only benefit the reasonable distribution and management in energy resources, but also satisfy the increasing demand for electricity. The electrical power system construction is often a pivotal part in the national and regional economic development plan. This paper constructs a hybrid model, known as the E-MFA-BP model, that can forecast indices in the electrical power system, including wind speed, electrical load, and electricity price. Firstly, the ensemble empirical mode decomposition can be applied to eliminate the noise of original time series data. After data preprocessing, the back propagation neural network model is applied to carry out the forecasting. Owing to the instability of its structure, the modified firefly algorithm is employed to optimize the weight and threshold values of back propagation to obtain a hybrid model with higher forecasting quality. Three experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the model. Through comparison with other traditional well-known forecasting models, and models optimized by other optimization algorithms, the experimental results demonstrate that the hybrid model has the best forecasting performance.

Jiang, X, Wang, J, Li, Y, Li, J & Yao, J 2015, 'Energy harvesting for powering wireless sensor networks in low-frequency and large-force environments', Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, vol. 229, no. 11, pp. 1953-1964.
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Over the past few decades, wireless sensor networks have been widely used in the field of structure health monitoring of civil, mechanical, and aerospace systems. Currently, most wireless sensor networks are battery powered and it is costly and unsustainable for maintenance because of the requirement for frequent battery replacements. As an attempt to address such issue, this paper theoretically and experimentally studies a compression-based piezoelectric energy harvester, which is suitable for the low-frequency and large-force working environments, such as in civil and transportation infrastructure applications. The proposed energy harvester employs the piezoelectric structure constructed in multilayer stack configuration to convert ambient vibrations into electrical energy. Based on the linear theory of piezoelectricity, the two-degree-of-freedom electromechanical models of the proposed energy harvester were developed to characterize its performance in generating electrical energy under external excitations. Exact closed-form expressions of the electromechanical models have been derived to analyze the maximum harvested power and the optimal resistance. The theoretical analyses were validated through several experiments for a test prototype under harmonic excitations. The test results exhibit very good agreement with the analytical analyses and numerical simulations for a range of resistive loads and input excitation levels.

Jiang, Y, Tsai, P, Hao, Z & Cao, L 2015, 'Automatic multilevel thresholding for image segmentation using stratified sampling and Tabu Search', Soft Computing, vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 2605-2617.
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Image segmentation techniques have been widely applied in many fields such as pattern recognition and feature extraction. For the primate visual attention model, the perceptual organization is an important process to automatically extract the desirable features. In this article, we propose a new method called an automatic multilevel thresholding algorithm using the stratified sampling and Tabu Search (AMTSSTS) by imitating the primate visual perceptual behaviors. In the AMTSSTS algorithm, a gray image is treated as a population with the gray values of pixels as the individuals. First, the image is evenly divided into several strata (blocks), and a sample is drawn from each stratum. Second, a Tabu Search-based optimization is applied to each sample to maximize the ratio between mean and variance for each sample. The threshold number and threshold values are preliminarily determined based on the optimized samples, and are further optimized by a deterministic method which includes a new local criterion function with property of local continuity of an image. Results of extensive simulations on Berkeley datasets indicate that AMTSSTS can obtain more effective, efficient and smooth segmentation, and can be applied to complex and real-time environments. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Jiang, Z, Tijing, LD, Amarjargal, A, Park, CH, An, K-J, Shon, HK & Kim, CS 2015, 'Removal of oil from water using magnetic bicomponent composite nanofibers fabricated by electrospinning', Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 77, pp. 311-318.
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Jin, D, Gabrys, B & Dang, J 2015, 'Combined node and link partitions method for finding overlapping communities in complex networks', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 8600.
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AbstractCommunity detection in complex networks is a fundamental data analysis task in various domains and how to effectively find overlapping communities in real applications is still a challenge. In this work, we propose a new unified model and method for finding the best overlapping communities on the basis of the associated node and link partitions derived from the same framework. Specifically, we first describe a unified model that accommodates node and link communities (partitions) together and then present a nonnegative matrix factorization method to learn the parameters of the model. Thereafter, we infer the overlapping communities based on the derived node and link communities, i.e., determine each overlapped community between the corresponding node and link community with a greedy optimization of a local community function conductance. Finally, we introduce a model selection method based on consensus clustering to determine the number of communities. We have evaluated our method on both synthetic and real-world networks with ground-truths and compared it with seven state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of our method over the competing ones in detecting overlapping communities for all analysed data sets. Improved performance is particularly pronounced in cases of more complicated networked community structures.

Jin, P, Wang, X, Wang, X, Ngo, HH & Jin, X 2015, 'A new step aeration approach towards the improvement of nitrogen removal in a full scale Carrousel oxidation ditch', Bioresource Technology, vol. 198, pp. 23-30.
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Jing, D, Bhadri, VA, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Yakob, NA, Wong, JWH, Knezevic, K, Pimanda, JE & Lock, RB 2015, 'Opposing regulation of BIM and BCL2 controls glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells', BLOOD, vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 273-283.
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Jing, T, Ramji, R, Warkiani, ME, Han, J, Lim, CT & Chen, C-H 2015, 'Jetting microfluidics with size-sorting capability for single-cell protease detection', Biosensors and Bioelectronics, vol. 66, pp. 19-23.
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Johnston, A 2015, 'Conversational Interaction in Interactive Dance Works', Leonardo, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 296-297.
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This paper describes an interactive dance/physical theatre work entitled Encoded, which made use of motion capture techniques and real-time fluid simulations to create systems intended to support, stimulate and augment live performance. Preliminary findings from a qualitative study of performers’ experiences with the system raise a number of issues, including the challenges of creating theatrical meaning with interactive systems, using Contact Improvisation as a metaphor for engaging creative systems, and the impact that large-scale projections can have on performers’ engagement.

Jonáš, A, McGloin, D & Kiraz, A 2015, 'Droplet Lasers', Optics and Photonics News, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 36-36.
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Junankar, S, Baker, LA, Roden, DL, Nair, R, Elsworth, B, Gallego-Ortega, D, Lacaze, P, Cazet, A, Nikolic, I, Teo, WS, Yang, J, McFarland, A, Harvey, K, Naylor, MJ, Lakhani, SR, Simpson, PT, Raghavendra, A, Saunus, J, Madore, J, Kaplan, W, Ormandy, C, Millar, EKA, O’Toole, S, Yun, K & Swarbrick, A 2015, 'ID4 controls mammary stem cells and marks breast cancers with a stem cell-like phenotype', Nature Communications, vol. 6, no. 1.
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Kamaleswaran, R, Wehbe, RR, Edward Pugh, J, Nacke, L, McGregor, C & James, A 2015, 'Collaborative multi-touch clinical handover system for the neonatal intensive care unit', Electronic Journal of Health Informatics, vol. 9, no. 1.
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Background: A critically ill infant admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit requires complex, critical, and coordinated care performed by multidisciplinary healthcare teams. Since the infant's care is not provided by a single, individual physician during the infant's hospital stay, clinical handover is essential to enable the transfer of health information between physicians involved in the infant's care. Objective: Handover at present is largely conducted in an informal and ad hoc way. A study of clinical handover is required to inform the development of automated intelligent systems that facilitate communication and collaboration between critical care health providers. Methods: A qualitative study in a quaternary neonatal intensive care unit, at The Hospital for Sick Children was undertaken to understand clinical handover and derive usability requirements. This is then used to inform a high level design of a multi-touch tabletop application for handover the design was then evaluated against senior neonatologists and neonatal fellows using rapid prototyping methods. Results: The results of the qualitative study showed that an effective handover application should at minimum include: tight integration with workflow and the physical environment, intuitive and simplicity, and minimalistic design following the 'less is more' philosophy. Conclusion: There is a need to optimize handover such that the information transferred is standardized, and the loss of information and/or misinformation is minimized. We argue that natural user interface design employed in the proposed design will result in improved care and less information loss during clinical handover.

Karim, MR, Rahman, BMA, Azabi, YO, Agrawal, A & Agrawal, GP 2015, 'Ultrabroadband mid-infrared supercontinuum generation through dispersion engineering of chalcogenide microstructured fibers', JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA B-OPTICAL PHYSICS, vol. 32, no. 11, pp. 2343-2351.
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Karimi, F & Khalilpour, R 2015, 'Evolution of carbon capture and storage research: Trends of international collaborations and knowledge maps', International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, vol. 37, pp. 362-376.
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Karimi, F, Poo, DCC & Tan, YM 2015, 'Clinical information systems end user satisfaction: The expectations and needs congruencies effects', Journal of Biomedical Informatics, vol. 53, pp. 342-354.
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Karmokar, DK & Esselle, KP 2015, 'Periodic U-Slot-Loaded Dual-Band Half-Width Microstrip Leaky-Wave Antennas for Forward and Backward Beam Scanning', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 63, no. 12, pp. 5372-5381.
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Karmokar, DK, Esselle, KP & Bird, TS 2015, 'An Array of Half-Width Microstrip Leaky-Wave Antennas Radiating on Boresight', IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 14, pp. 112-114.
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Karunanithi, R, Szogi, AA, Bolan, N, Naidu, R, Loganathan, P, Hunt, PG, Vanotti, MB, Saint, CP, Ok, YS & Krishnamoorthy, S 2015, 'Phosphorus Recovery and Reuse from Waste Streams', Advances in Agronomy, vol. 131, pp. 173-250.
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Phosphorus (P) is a macronutrient essential for all living organisms. Regrettably, it is a finite resource since phosphate rock (PR) is the main material used for production of P fertilizers. Globally, the demand for quality PR is escalating due to many factors including increasing human population. Inevitably, the demand for PR will exceed its supply capacity. This condition will be very difficult to manage as living systems have no alternative for P. Moreover, P use efficiency is low; only 15-20% of applied P is used by crops and animals. Globally, the remaining P is shunted into various waste streams. These waste streams include large quantities of effluents rich in P from both municipal and industrial wastewater treatment systems and manure from livestock production. The P present in these waste streams poses a threat to the environment by nutrient enrichment resulting in serious ecological issues such as eutrophication of waterways. However, P in these waste streams, if economically recovered, can contribute to a sustainable management of P resources. This review covers the following aspects: global importance of P as an essential nutrient; efficient and sustainable utilization of P; waste stream production, their suitability for P recovery, and limitations; current and emerging technologies for recovery of P; and the use of recovered P material. Finally, future research needs are identified associated with P recovery from waste streams and reuse in agriculture.

Kassir, A, Fitch, R & Sukkarieh, S 2015, 'Communication-aware information gathering with dynamic information flow', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS RESEARCH, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 173-200.
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© The Author(s) 2014. We are interested in the problem of how to improve estimation in multi-robot information gathering systems by actively controlling the rate of communication between robots. Communication is essential in such systems for decentralized data fusion and decision-making, but wireless networks impose capacity constraints that are frequently overlooked. In order to make efficient use of available capacity, it is necessary to consider a fundamental trade-off between communication cost, computation cost and information value. We introduce a new problem, dynamic information flow, that formalizes this trade-off in terms of decentralized constrained optimization. We propose algorithms that dynamically adjust the data rate of each communication link to maximize an information gain metric subject to constraints on communication and computation resources. The metric is balanced against the communication resources required to transmit data and the computation cost of processing sensor data to form observations. The optimization process selectively routes raw sensor data or processed observation data to zero, one or many robots. Our algorithms therefore allow large systems with many different types of sensors and computational resources to maximize information gain performance while satisfying realistic communication constraints. We also present experimental results with multiple ground robots and multiple sensor types that demonstrate the benefit of dynamic information flow in comparison to simpler bandwidth-limiting methods.

Katz, A, McDonagh, A, Tijing, L & Shon, HK 2015, 'Fouling and Inactivation of Titanium Dioxide-Based Photocatalytic Systems', Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 45, no. 17, pp. 1880-1915.
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Titanium dioxide is an effective photocatalyst for the breakdown of many environmental contaminants. The complex mixtures that can occur in water matrices can significantly affect the breakdown of the contaminants in water by titanium dioxide (TiO2). The authors discuss a wide variety of foulants and inhibitors of photocatalytic TiO2 systems and review different methods that can be effective for their fouling prevention. Approaches to regenerate a fouled or contaminated TiO2 catalysts are explored and the effect of substrates on immobilized titanium dioxide is also reviewed.

Keam, S & Hutvagner, G 2015, 'tRNA-Derived Fragments (tRFs): Emerging New Roles for an Ancient RNA in the Regulation of Gene Expression', Life, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1638-1651.
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This review will summarise the recent discoveries and current state of research on short noncoding RNAs derived from tRNAs—known as tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs). It will describe the features of the known subtypes of these RNAs; including sequence characteristics, protein interactors, expression characteristics, biogenesis, and similarity to canonical miRNA pathways. Also their role in regulating gene expression; including mediating translational suppression, will be discussed. We also highlight their potential use as biomarkers, functions in gene regulation and links to disease. Finally, this review will speculate as to the origin and rationale for the conservation of this novel class of noncoding RNAs amongst both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Keepanasseril, A, Bagga, R, Saha, SC, Dey, P, Gainder, S & Dhaliwal, LK 2015, 'Primary fallopian tube transitional cell carcinoma', Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 324-325.
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Kehrel, U & Sick, N 2015, 'Oil prices as a driving force in the diffusion of renewables?', International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 227-250.
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Purpose – Researchers began investigating the diffusion of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in the late 1990s, and, up to today, a variety of authors have presented different approaches to understand the special characteristics of RET diffusion. However, one factor has been thus far disregarded in the research: the influence of raw material prices on RET diffusion. The dependence of a multitude of technologies on raw material prices became especially apparent in recent years due to rather sudden and volatile price movements in raw material markets. Thus, the aim of this work is to contribute to the research by providing evidence for a direct linkage between raw material price developments and RET diffusion. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical framework used in this article derives from the concept of induced diffusion. This empirical study is based on publicly available data of 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries over 20 years and uses multivariate regression analysis to identify the corresponding diffusion models for selected established and emerging RETs. Findings – Results reveal that crude oil prices play a crucial role in the diffusion of emerging RETs. In addition, a joint reflection of induced diffusion and path dependencies as the theoretical foundation of RET diffusion models might be reasonable. Originality/value – This paper makes a sign...

Kelly, A 2015, 'Intimacy and emotional labour in academic development', International Journal for Academic Development, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 93-104.
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© 2015, © 2015 Taylor & Francis. The affective dimensions of intimacy and emotional labour in academic development are explored utilising two methodological resources: autoethnography and narrative practice. An excerpt from the author’s reflective professional journal infused with affect and emotion is analysed utilising theories of intimacy in modernity, emotion work, and professional intimacy. The journal excerpt is ‘restoried’ to produce narrative lines that provide insight into the journal entry. The article concludes by proposing a ‘pedagogy of intimacy’ as an analytical space that values both skill and care.

Kelly, R & Sheng, D 2015, 'Numerical evaluation of clay disturbance during blade penetration in the flat dilatometer test', Géotechnique Letters, vol. 5, no. July–September, pp. 91-95.
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Kemp, M & Xu, RYD 2015, 'Geometrically-constrained balloon fitting for multiple connected ellipses', Pattern Recognition, vol. 48, no. 7, pp. 2198-2208.
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Khabbaz, H 2015, 'ANCHORED WALL DESIGN: COMPARING THE GLOBAL AND PARTIAL FACTORS OF SAFETY INCORPORATING THE AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS', International Journal of Geomate, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1395-1402.
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© 2015, International Journal of GEOMATE. A versatile and user-friendly model has been developed for evaluating the factor of safety of anchored sheet-pile structures, using both global factors of safety (GFS) and partial factors of safety (PFS) methods, abiding AS 4678 standard, an Australian standard for retaining wall design. The developed model is aimed to determine the following features: (i) depth of embedment, (ii) total wall height for determining the amount of material required, (iii) the length of anchor, (iv) the anchor force and (v) the maximum moment acting on the sheet-pile wall. Key findings are highlighted based on the design calculations. This study incorporates different design scenarios including layered soil, line loads and uniformly distributed surcharge loads to draw comparisons between the GFS and PFS methods. Many examples are used to validate the outputs of the program. The results indicate that the PFS method is preferred for design strength and safety aspects, whereas the GFS method is adopted for cost effectiveness and simplicity of design calculations. The limitations of the Australian standard AS 4678-2002 are discussed in order to identify the superiority of one method over another.

Khalilpour, R & Vassallo, A 2015, 'Leaving the grid: An ambition or a real choice?', Energy Policy, vol. 82, pp. 207-221.
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Khalilpour, R & Vassallo, A 2015, 'Leaving the grid: An ambition or a real choice?', vol. 82, no. C, pp. 207-221.
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The recent rapid decline in PV prices has brought grid parity, or near grid parity for PV in many countries. This, together with an expectation of a similar reduction for battery prices has prompted a new wave of social and academic discussions about the possibility of installing PV–battery systems and “leaving the grid” or “living off-grid”. This, if uncontrolled, has been termed the “death spiral” for utility companies.

Khalilpour, R, Mumford, K, Zhai, H, Abbas, A, Stevens, G & Rubin, ES 2015, 'Membrane-based carbon capture from flue gas: a review', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 103, pp. 286-300.
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Khan, MH, Huang, Z, Xiao, F, Casillas, G, Chen, Z, Molino, PJ & Liu, HK 2015, 'Erratum: Synthesis of Large and Few Atomic Layers of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Melted Copper', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1.
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Khan, MH, Huang, Z, Xiao, F, Casillas, G, Chen, Z, Molino, PJ & Liu, HK 2015, 'Synthesis of Large and Few Atomic Layers of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Melted Copper', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1.
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Khan, MI & kamal, MS 2015, 'Performance evaluation of Warshall algorithm and dynamic programming for Markov chain in local sequence alignment', Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 78-81.
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Khazaei, H, McGregor, C, Eklund, JM & El-Khatib, K 2015, 'Real-Time and Retrospective Health-Analytics-as-a-Service: A Novel Framework', JMIR Medical Informatics, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. e36-e36.
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Background: Analytics-as-a-service (AaaS) is one of the latest provisions emerging from the cloud services family. Utilizing this paradigm of computing in health informatics will benefit patients, care providers, and governments significantly. This work is a novel approach to realize health analytics as services in critical care units in particular. Objective: To design, implement, evaluate, and deploy an extendable big-data compatible framework for health-analytics-as-a-service that offers both real-time and retrospective analysis. Methods: We present a novel framework that can realize health data analytics-as-a-service. The framework is flexible and configurable for different scenarios by utilizing the latest technologies and best practices for data acquisition, transformation, storage, analytics, knowledge extraction, and visualization. We have instantiated the proposed method, through the Artemis project, that is, a customization of the framework for live monitoring and retrospective research on premature babies and ill term infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Results: We demonstrated the proposed framework in this paper for monitoring NICUs and refer to it as the Artemis-In-Cloud (Artemis-IC) project. A pilot of Artemis has been deployed in the SickKids hospital NICU. By infusing the output of this pilot set up to an analytical model, we predict important performance measures for the final deployment of Artemis-IC. This process can be carried out for other hospitals following the same steps with minimal effort. SickKids' NICU has 36 beds and can classify the patients generally into 5 different types including surgical and premature babies. The arrival rate is estimated as 4.5 patients per day, and the average length of stay was calculated as 16 days. Mean number of medical monitoring algorithms per patient is 9, which renders 311 live algorithms for the whole NICU running on the framework. The memory and computation power required for Artemis-I...

Khazaei, H, Mench-Bressan, N, McGregor, C & Pugh, JE 2015, 'Health Informatics for Neonatal Intensive Care Units: An Analytical Modeling Perspective', IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, vol. 3, pp. 1-9.
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The effective use of data within intensive care units (ICUs) has great potential to create new cloud-based health analytics solutions for disease prevention or earlier condition onset detection. The Artemis project aims to achieve the above goals in the area of neonatal ICUs (NICU). In this paper, we proposed an analytical model for the Artemis cloud project which will be deployed at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton. We collect not only physiological data but also the infusion pumps data that are attached to NICU beds. Using the proposed analytical model, we predict the amount of storage, memory, and computation power required for the system. Capacity planning and tradeoff analysis would be more accurate and systematic by applying the proposed analytical model in this paper. Numerical results are obtained using real inputs acquired from McMaster Children's Hospital and a pilot deployment of the system at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto.

Khezri, N, Mohamad, H, HajiHassani, M & Fatahi, B 2015, 'The stability of shallow circular tunnels in soil considering variations in cohesion with depth', Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, vol. 49, pp. 230-240.
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Khoo, BL, Lee, SC, Kumar, P, Tan, TZ, Warkiani, ME, Ow, SGW, Nandi, S, Lim, CT & Thiery, JP 2015, 'Short-term expansion of breast circulating cancer cells predicts response to anti-cancer therapy', Oncotarget, vol. 6, no. 17, pp. 15578-15593.
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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are considered as surrogate markers for prognosticating and evaluating patient treatment responses. Here, 226 blood samples from 92 patients with breast cancer, including patients with newly diagnosed or metastatic refractory cancer, and 16 blood samples from healthy subjects were cultured in laser-ablated microwells. Clusters containing an increasing number of cytokeratin-positive (CK+) cells appeared after 2 weeks, while most blood cells disappeared with time. Cultures were heterogeneous and exhibited two distinct sub-populations of cells: 'Small' (≤ 25 μm; high nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio; CD45-) cells, comprising CTCs, and 'Large' (> 25 μm; low nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio; CD68+ or CD56+) cells, corresponding to macrophage and natural killer-like cells. The Small cell fraction also showed copy number increases in six target genes (FGFR1, Myc, CCND1, HER2, TOP2A and ZNF217) associated with breast cancer. These expanded CTCs exhibited different proportions of epithelial-mesenchymal phenotypes and were transferable for further expansion as spheroids in serum-free suspension or 3D cultures. Cluster formation was affected by the presence and duration of systemic therapy, and its persistence may reflect therapeutic resistance. This novel and advanced method estimates CTC clonal heterogeneity and can predict, within a relatively short time frame, patient responses to therapy.

Khorsandnia, N & Crews, K 2015, 'Application of Quasi-Brittle Material Model for Analysis of Timber Members', Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 99-115.
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Khorsandnia, N, Schänzlin, J, Valipour, H & Crews, K 2015, 'Coupled finite element-finite difference formulation for long-term analysis of timber–concrete composite structures', Engineering Structures, vol. 96, pp. 139-152.
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Kianfar, K, Indraratna, B, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Leroueil, S 2015, 'Radial consolidation response upon the application and removal of vacuum and fill loading', CANADIAN GEOTECHNICAL JOURNAL, vol. 52, no. 12, pp. 2156-2162.
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Kim, DI, Kim, J, Shon, HK & Hong, S 2015, 'Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) for integrating seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation: Energy consumption and fouling', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 483, pp. 34-41.
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Kim, J, Jeong, K, Park, M, Shon, H & Kim, J 2015, 'Recent Advances in Osmotic Energy Generation via Pressure-Retarded Osmosis (PRO): A Review', Energies, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 11821-11845.
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Global energy consumption has been highly dependent on fossil fuels which cause severe climate change and, therefore, the exploration of new technologies to produce effective renewable energy plays an important role in the world. Pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) is one of the promising candidates to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels by harnessing energy from the salinity gradient between seawater and fresh water. In PRO, water is transported though a semi-permeable membrane from a low-concentrated feed solution to a high-concentrated draw solution. The increased volumetric water flow then runs a hydro-turbine to generate power. PRO technology has rapidly improved in recent years; however, the commercial-scale PRO plant is yet to be developed. In this context, recent developments on the PRO process are reviewed in terms of mathematical models, membrane modules, process designs, numerical works, and fouling and cleaning. In addition, the research requirements to accelerate PRO commercialization are discussed. It is expected that this article can help comprehensively understand the PRO process and thereby provide essential information to activate further research and development.

Kim, JE, Phuntsho, S, Lotfi, F & Shon, HK 2015, 'Investigation of pilot-scale 8040 FO membrane module under different operating conditions for brackish water desalination', DESALINATION AND WATER TREATMENT, vol. 53, no. 10, pp. 2782-2791.
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© 2014, © 2014 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Two spiral wound forward osmosis membrane modules with different spacer designs (corrugated spacer [CS] and medium spacer [MS]) were investigated for the fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis (FO) desalination of brackish groundwater (BGW) at a pilot-scale level. This study mainly focused on examining the influence of various operating conditions such as feed flow rate, total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration of the BGW feed, and draw solution (DS) concentrations using ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4, SOA) on the performance of two membrane modules. The feed flow rate played a positive role in the average water flux of the pilot-scale FO membrane module due to enhanced mass transfer coefficient across the membrane surface. Feed TDS and DS concentrations also played a significant role in both FO membrane modules because they are directly related to the osmotic driving force and membrane fouling tendency. CS module performed slightly better than MS module during all experiments due to probably enhanced mass transfer and lower fouling propensity associated with the CS. Besides, CS spacer provides larger channel space that can accommodate larger volumes of DS, and hence, could maintain higher DS concentration. However, the extent of dilution for the CS module is slightly lower.

Kim, Y, Lee, S, Shon, HK & Hong, S 2015, 'Organic fouling mechanisms in forward osmosis membrane process under elevated feed and draw solution temperatures', Desalination, vol. 355, pp. 169-177.
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© 2014. Organic fouling mechanisms in forward osmosis (FO) were systematically investigated at varying feed and draw temperatures. The effect of temperature variation on FO performance was first examined without foulants. When draw temperature increased, internal concentration polarization (ICP) decreased, which caused water flux to increase. Water flux was also improved with increasing feed temperature due to water permeability increased by decreased viscosity. Thus it can be deduced that water flux enhancement was induced by combined effects of reduced ICP and enhanced water permeability. A series of fouling experiments was then elaborately designed to fundamentally elucidate organic fouling mechanisms. Results demonstrated that organic fouling was significantly influenced by convective and diffusive organic transports induced by increasing temperature. Faster flux decline was observed with increasing draw temperature, primarily due to increased permeation drag. When increasing feed temperature, FO membrane was less fouled, attributing to enhanced organic back diffusion from membrane surface as well as increased organic solubility. Furthermore, fouling became more severe above certain critical flux at which organic convection by permeation drag dominated fouling mechanism as seen with escalating both temperatures simultaneously. Findings from this study can be utilized beneficially when FO temperature may be varied and needs to be optimized.

Kitwitee, P, Limwattananon, S, Limwattananon, C, Waleekachonlert, O, Ratanachotpanich, T, Phimphilai, M, Nguyen, TV & Pongchaiyakul, C 2015, 'Metformin for the treatment of gestational diabetes: An updated meta-analysis', Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, vol. 109, no. 3, pp. 521-532.
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Klein, MT, Kalam, M, Trout, K, Fowler, N & Terry, M 2015, 'Mescaline Concentrations in Three Principal Tissues ofLophophora williamsii(Cactaceae): Implications for Sustainable Harvesting Practices', Haseltonia, vol. 20, pp. 34-42.
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Kong, J-J, Yue, Q-Y, Zhao, P, Gao, B-Y, Li, Q, Wang, Y, Ngo, HH & Guo, W-S 2015, 'Comparative study on microstructure and surface properties of keratin- and lignocellulosic-based activated carbons', Fuel Processing Technology, vol. 140, pp. 67-75.
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Kong, Y, Zhang, M & Ye, D 2015, 'A negotiation‐based method for task allocation with time constraints in open grid environments', Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 735-761.
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SummaryThis paper addresses the task allocation problem in an open, dynamic grid environments and service‐oriented environments. In such environments, both grid/service providers and consumers can be modelled as intelligent agents. These agents can leave and enter the environment freely at any time. Task allocation under time constraints becomes a challenging issue in such environments because it is difficult to apply a central controller during the allocation process due to the openness and dynamism of the environments. This paper proposes a negotiation‐based method for task allocation under time constraints in an open, dynamic grid environment, where both consumer and provider agents can freely enter or leave the environment. In this method, there is no central controller available, and agents negotiate with each other for task allocation based only on local views. The experimental results show that the proposed method can outperform the current methods in terms of the success rate of task allocation and the total profit obtained from the allocated tasks by agents under different time constraints. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Kong, Y, Zhang, M, Ye, D & Luo, X 2015, 'RETRACTED CHAPTER: A Negotiation Method for Task Allocation with Time Constraints in Open Grid Environments', Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol. 596, pp. 19-36.
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Konthesingha, KMC, Stewart, MG, Ryan, P, Ginger, J & Henderson, D 2015, 'Reliability based vulnerability modelling of metal-clad industrial buildings to extreme wind loading for cyclonic regions', Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, vol. 147, pp. 176-185.
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This paper presents an approach for developing a vulnerability model to predict the probability and extent of damage to metal-clad industrial buildings due to extreme wind loading. Structural reliability-based methods that describe the spatially distributed wind load and component/connection strengths probabilistically are used in the model. Two failure mechanisms are considered for the roof envelop, namely; failure of roof cladding, and purlin failure. Interdependency between the failure mechanisms, load sharing effects due to connection/component failure, and internal pressure variation due to roof cladding failure are also considered. The industrial building examined in the study is a hot rolled structural steel, metal-clad, gable-end building designed for cyclonic regions in Australia. The likelihood and extent of roof damage for this buildings is presented using wind vulnerability curves obtained from the probabilistic model. It is found that internal pressure (e.g. an open door) and the use of cyclone washers has a significant effect on wind vulnerability. The utilisation of cyclone washers is found to reduce damage risks by over 70%.

Kouretzis, GP, Ansari, Y, Pineda, J, Kelly, R & Sheng, D 2015, 'Numerical evaluation of clay disturbance during blade penetration in the flat dilatometer test', Géotechnique Letters, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 91-95.
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This paper presents a study on the amplification of horizontal soil stresses during flat dilatometer test (DMT) blade penetration based on three-dimensional total and effective stress numerical analyses, while considering stress–flow coupling and large deformations. The focus here is on saturated clays, and the effect of soil stress history on the horizontal stress index is discussed in detail. The obtained results appear to be in good agreement with published and new field data, leading to the proposal of two new expressions for estimating the overconsolidation ratio and the earth pressure coefficient at rest directly from flat dilatometer tests in estuarine clays.

Krause, M, Dackermann, U & Li, J 2015, 'Elastic wave modes for the assessment of structural timber: ultrasonic echo for building elements and guided waves for pole and pile structures', Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 221-249.
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© 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. This paper presents the state-of-the-art of using non-destructive testing (NDT) methods based on elastic waves for the condition assessment of structural timber. Two very promising approaches based on the propagation and reflections of elastic waves are described. While the first approach uses ultrasonic echoes for the testing of wooden building elements, the second approach uses guided waves (GW) for the testing of timber pole and pile structures. The basic principle behind both approaches is that elastic waves induced in a timber structure will propagate through its material until they encounter a change in stiffness, cross-sectional area or density, at which point they will reflect back. By measuring the wave echoes, it is possible to determine geometric properties of the tested structures such as the back wall of timber elements or the underground length of timber poles or piles. In addition, the internal state of the tested structures can be assessed since damage and defects such as rot, fungi or termite attacks will cause early reflections of the elastic waves as well as it can result in changes in wave velocity, wave attenuation and wave mode conversion. In the paper, the principles and theory of using elastic wave propagation for the assessment of wooden building elements and timber pole/pile structures are described. The state-of-the-art in testing equipment and procedures is presented and detailed examples are given on the practical application of both testing approaches. Recent encouraging developments of cutting edge research are presented along with challenges for future research.

Kueng, R & Ferrie, C 2015, 'Near-optimal quantum tomography: estimators and bounds', New J. Phys., vol. 17, p. 123013.
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We give bounds on the average fidelity achievable by any quantum stateestimator, which is arguably the most prominently used figure of merit inquantum state tomography. Moreover, these bounds can be computed online---thatis, while the experiment is running. We show numerically that these bounds arequite tight for relevant distributions of density matrices. We also show thatthe Bayesian mean estimator is ideal in the sense of performing close to thebound without requiring optimization. Our results hold for all finitedimensional quantum systems.

Kulkarni, R, Qiao, Y & Sun, X 2015, 'Any monotone property of 3-uniform hypergraphs is weakly evasive', Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 588, pp. 16-23.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. For a Boolean function f, let D(f) denote its deterministic decision tree complexity, i.e., minimum number of (adaptive) queries required in worst case in order to determine f. In a classic paper, Rivest and Vuillemin [11] show that any non-constant monotone property P:{0,1}(n2)→{0,1} of n-vertex graphs has D(P)=Ω(n2).We extend their result to 3-uniform hypergraphs. In particular, we show that any non-constant monotone property P:{0,1}(n3)→{0,1} of n-vertex 3-uniform hypergraphs has D(P)=Ω(n3).Our proof combines the combinatorial approach of Rivest and Vuillemin with the topological approach of Kahn, Saks, and Sturtevant [6]. Interestingly, our proof makes use of Vinogradov's Theorem (weak Goldbach Conjecture), inspired by its recent use by Babai et al. [1] in the context of the topological approach. Our work leaves the generalization to k-uniform hypergraphs as an intriguing open question.

Kunhikrishnan, A, Shon, HK, Bolan, NS, El Saliby, I & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Sources, Distribution, Environmental Fate, and Ecological Effects of Nanomaterials in Wastewater Streams', Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 277-318.
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© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Engineered nanomaterials (ENM) are manufactured, as opposed to being an incidental by-product of combustion or a natural process, and they often have unique or novel properties that emerge from their small size. These materials are being used in an expanding array of consumer products and, like all technological developments, have both benefits and risks. As the use of ENM in consumer products becomes more common, the amount of these nanomaterials entering wastewater stream increases. Estimates of nanomaterials production are in the range of 500 and 50,000 tons per year for silver and titanium dioxide (TiO2) alone, respectively. Nanomaterials enter the wastewater stream during the production, usage, and disposal of nanomaterial-containing products. The predicted values of nanomaterials range from 0.003 (fullerenes) to 21 ng L-1 (nano-TiO2) for surface waters, and from 4 ng L-1 (fullerenes) to 4 g L-1 (nano-TiO2) for sewage treatment effluents. Therefore, investigating the fate of nanomaterials in wastewater streams is critical for risk assessment and pollution control. The authors aim first to identify the sources of nanomaterials reaching wastewater streams, then determine their occurrence and distribution, and finally discuss their fate in relation to human and ecological health, and environmental impact.

Kurian, JC 2015, 'Facebook use by the open access repository users', Online Information Review, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 903-922.
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Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the type and implications of user-generated content posted by users of an open access institutional repository (DSpace) on Facebook.Design/methodology/approach– The identified user-generated content was organised into three categories: personal; professional; and social information. It encompassed all content from the members of the “DSpace” Facebook group, posted during the seven-year period (2007-2014). The posts were read and analysed to identify and categorise user-generated content posted by users to determine how Facebook is used by open access repository users.Findings– The results of analysis demonstrate the importance of social information posted by users over personal and professional information. Major types of user-generated content posted by users in the social information category were request, greetings, status-update, and announcement. Further, there has been a threefold increase in the number of user postings in the last two years (2013-2014), when posts were analysed over a seven-year period.Research limitations/implications– This study contributes to the theory on the implications eventuating from user-generated content posted by users of an open access institutional repository. An analysis of user-generated content identified in this study implies that users of DSpace open access repository are primarily using Facebook for information seeking, relationship building, and knowledge dissemination.Practical implications– By analysing the findi...

Kwok, N, Shi, H, Fang, G, Ha, Q, Yu, Y-H, Wu, T, Li, H & Nguyen, T 2015, 'Color image enhancement using correlated intensity and saturation adjustments', JOURNAL OF MODERN OPTICS, vol. 62, no. 13, pp. 1037-1047.
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© 2015 Taylor & Francis. The enhancement of digital color images needs to be performed in accordance with human perception in terms of hue, saturation, and intensity attributes instead of improving only the contrast. Two approaches were developed in this work, which use a correlated adjustment mechanism incorporating intensity and saturation attributes and provide contrast and saturation enhancements together with brightness consistency. In these algorithms, object edges are emphasized for contrast, and image saturation is increased by boosting the salient regions. Furthermore, intensity and saturation enhancements are carried out in a lattice structure where adjustments are made inter-related for better performance. Experiments were conducted with benchmark and real-world images. Results had shown improvements in image qualities both qualitatively and quantitatively.

La Fontaine, A, Gault, B, Breen, A, Stephenson, L, Ceguerra, AV, Yang, L, Dinh Nguyen, T, Zhang, J, Young, DJ & Cairney, JM 2015, 'Interpreting atom probe data from chromium oxide scales', Ultramicroscopy, vol. 159, pp. 354-359.
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Lai, J, Dutkiewicz, E, Liu, RP & Vesilo, R 2015, 'Opportunistic Spectrum Access with Two Channel Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks', IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 126-138.
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Lai, Q, Paskevicius, M, Sheppard, DA, Buckley, CE, Thornton, AW, Hill, MR, Gu, Q, Mao, J, Huang, Z, Liu, HK, Guo, Z, Banerjee, A, Chakraborty, S, Ahuja, R & Aguey‐Zinsou, K 2015, 'Hydrogen Storage Materials for Mobile and Stationary Applications: Current State of the Art', ChemSusChem, vol. 8, no. 17, pp. 2789-2825.
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AbstractOne of the limitations to the widespread use of hydrogen as an energy carrier is its storage in a safe and compact form. Herein, recent developments in effective high‐capacity hydrogen storage materials are reviewed, with a special emphasis on light compounds, including those based on organic porous structures, boron, nitrogen, and aluminum. These elements and their related compounds hold the promise of high, reversible, and practical hydrogen storage capacity for mobile applications, including vehicles and portable power equipment, but also for the large scale and distributed storage of energy for stationary applications. Current understanding of the fundamental principles that govern the interaction of hydrogen with these light compounds is summarized, as well as basic strategies to meet practical targets of hydrogen uptake and release. The limitation of these strategies and current understanding is also discussed and new directions proposed.

Lam, HK, Ekong, U, Xiao, B, Ouyang, G, Liu, H, Chan, KY & Ling, SH 2015, 'Variable weight neural networks and their applications on material surface and epilepsy seizure phase classifications', NEUROCOMPUTING, vol. 149, pp. 1177-1187.
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Lambertz, I, Kumps, C, Claeys, S, Lindner, S, Beckers, A, Janssens, E, Carter, DR, Cazes, A, Cheung, BB, De Mariano, M, De Bondt, A, De Brouwer, S, Delattre, O, Gibbons, J, Janoueix-Lerosey, I, Laureys, G, Liang, C, Marchall, GM, Porcu, M, Takita, J, Trujillo, DC, Van Den Wyngaert, I, Van Roy, N, Van Goethem, A, Van Maerken, T, Zabrocki, P, Cools, J, Schulte, JH, Vialard, J, Speleman, F & De Preter, K 2015, 'Upregulation of MAPK Negative Feedback Regulators and RET in Mutant ALK Neuroblastoma: Implications for Targeted Treatment', Clinical Cancer Research, vol. 21, no. 14, pp. 3327-3339.
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Abstract Purpose: Activating ALK mutations are present in almost 10% of primary neuroblastomas and mark patients for treatment with small-molecule ALK inhibitors in clinical trials. However, recent studies have shown that multiple mechanisms drive resistance to these molecular therapies. We anticipated that detailed mapping of the oncogenic ALK-driven signaling in neuroblastoma can aid to identify potential fragile nodes as additional targets for combination therapies. Experimental Design: To achieve this goal, transcriptome profiling was performed in neuroblastoma cell lines with the ALKF1174L or ALKR1275Q hotspot mutations, ALK amplification, or wild-type ALK following pharmacologic inhibition of ALK using four different compounds. Next, we performed cross-species genomic analyses to identify commonly transcriptionally perturbed genes in MYCN/ALKF1174L double transgenic versus MYCN transgenic mouse tumors as compared with the mutant ALK-driven transcriptome in human neuroblastomas. Results: A 77-gene ALK signature was established and successfully validated in primary neuroblastoma samples, in a neuroblastoma cell line with ALKF1174L and ALKR1275Q regulable overexpression constructs and in other ALKomas. In addition to the previously established PI3K/AKT/mTOR, MAPK/ERK, and MYC/MYCN signaling branches, we identified that mutant ALK drives a strong upregulation of MAPK negative feedback regulators and upregulates RET and RET-driven sympathetic neuronal markers of the cholinergic lineage. Conclusions: We provide important novel insights into the transcriptional consequences and the complexity of mutant ALK signaling in this aggressive pediatric tumor. The negative feedback loop of MAPK pathway inhibitors may affect novel ALK inhibition therapies, whereas mutant ALK induced RET signaling can offer novel opportunit...

Lammers, T & Golfmann, J 2015, 'Modular Product Design: reducing complexity, increasing efficacy', Performance, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 56-63.
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In a global business environment, the increasedindividuality of customer demands adds externalpressure for companies. On the other hand,growing competition creates the need forcost-cutting programs. The conflict betweenexternal variance and internal standardizationcan be solved by approaches such as modularproduct design. A proven four-phase approachthat enables the modularization of productarchitectures is examined in this article.

Law, Y, Ye, L, Wang, Q, Hu, S, Pijuan, M & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Producing free nitrous acid – A green and renewable biocidal agent – From anaerobic digester liquor', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 259, pp. 62-69.
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Lawson, J, Rasul, MG, Howard, P, Martin, F, Hadgraft, R & Jarman, R 2015, 'Getting it right: The case for supervisors assessing process in capstone projects', International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 1810-1818.
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Capstone projects represent the culmination of an undergraduate engineering degree and are typically the last checkpoint measure before students graduate and enter the engineering profession. In Australia there is a longstanding interest in and commitment to developing quality capstone experiences.Anational study into the supervision and assessment of capstone projects has determined that whilst there is relative consistency in terms of what project tasks are set and assessed, there is not comparable consistency in how these tasks or assignments are marked. Two interconnected areas of assessing process and the role of the supervisor in marking are identified as contentious. This paper presents some findings of a national case study and concludes that whilst further investigation is warranted, assessing process as well as project products is valuable as is the need for greater acceptance of project supervisors as capable of making informed, professional judgments when marking significant project work.

Le Thi My, H, Nguyen Thanh, B & Khuat Thanh, T 2015, 'Survey on Mutation-based Test Data Generation', International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE), vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 1164-1164.
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<span>The critical activity of testing is the systematic selection of suitable test cases, which be able to reveal highly the faults. Therefore, mutation coverage is an effective criterion for generating test data. Since the test data generation process is very labor intensive, time-consuming and error-prone when done manually, the automation of this process is highly aspired. The researches about automatic test data generation contributed a set of tools, approaches, development and empirical results. In this paper, we will analyse and conduct a comprehensive survey on generating test data based on mutation. The paper also analyses the trends in this field.</span>

Le, TM, Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2015, 'Numerical optimisation to obtain elastic viscoplastic model parameters for soft clay', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PLASTICITY, vol. 65, pp. 1-21.
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© 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. In this paper, a numerical optimisation procedure is presented to obtain non-linear elastic viscoplastic (EVP) model parameters adopting the available consolidation data. The Crank-Nicolson finite difference scheme is applied to solve the combination of coupled partial differential equations of the EVP model and the consolidation theory. Then, the model parameters are determined applying the trust-region reflective optimisation algorithm in conjunction with the finite difference solution. The proposed solution for the model parameter determination can utilise all available consolidation data during the dissipation of the excess pore water pressure to determine the required model parameters. Moreover, in order to include creep in the numerical predictions explicitly from the very first time steps, the reference time in the elastic viscoplastic model can readily be adopted as a unit of time. Results obtained from two sets of laboratory experiments adopting hydraulic consolidation (Rowe cells) on a soft soil are reported and discussed. The proposed numerical optimisation procedure is utilised to obtain the viscoplastic model parameters adopting the experimental results, while the settlement and pore water pressure predictions are compared with experimental results to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the proposed numerical procedure. The predictions are in good agreement with the measurements, supporting the proposed numerical method as a practical tool to analyse the stress-strain behaviour of soft clay.

Le, TM, Fatahi, B, Disfani, M & Khabbaz, H 2015, 'Analyzing consolidation data to obtain elastic viscoplastic parameters of clay', GEOMECHANICS AND ENGINEERING, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 559-594.
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© 2015 Techno-Press, Ltd. A nonlinear creep function incorporated into the elastic visco-plastic model may describe the long-term soil deformation more accurately. However, by applying the conventional procedure, there are challenges to determine the model parameters due to limitation of suitable data points. This paper presents a numerical solution to obtain several parameters simultaneously for a nonlinear elastic visco-plastic (EVP) model using the available consolidation data. The finite difference scheme using the Crank-Nicolson procedure is applied to solve a set of coupled partial differential equations of the time dependent strain and pore water pressure dissipation. The model parameters are determined by applying the algorithm of trust-region reflective optimisation in conjunction with the finite difference solution. The proposed method utilises all available consolidation data during dissipation of the excess pore water pressure to determine the required model parameters. Moreover, the reference time in the elastic visco-plastic model can readily be adopted as a unit of time; denoting creep is included in the numerical predictions explicitly from the very first time steps. In this paper, the settlement predictions of thick soft clay layers are presented and discussed to evaluate and compare the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method against the graphical procedure to obtain the model parameters. In addition, comparison of the available experimental results to the numerical predictions confirms the accuracy of the numerical procedure.

Lee, J-S, Filatova, T, Ligmann-Zielinska, A, Hassani-Mahmooei, B, Stonedahl, F, Lorscheid, I, Voinov, A, Polhill, G, Sun, Z & Parker, DC 2015, 'The Complexities of Agent-Based Modeling Output Analysis', Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18, no. 4.
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Lee, Y-C, Liu, J, Chuang, Y-L, Hsieh, M-H & Lee, R-K 2015, 'Passive $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric couplers without complex optical potentials', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 92, no. 5, pp. 053815-4.
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In addition to the implementation of parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$)-symmetricoptical systems by carefully and actively controlling the gain and loss, weshow that a $2\times 2$ $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Hamiltonian has a unitarilyequivalent representation without complex optical potentials in the resultingoptical coupler. Through the Naimark dilation in operator algebra, passive$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric couplers can thus be implemented with a refractiveindex of real values and asymmetric coupling coefficients. This opens up thepossibility to implement general $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric systems withstate-of-the-art asymmetric slab waveguides, dissimilar optical fibers, orcavities with chiral mirrors.

Lei, G, Liu, C, Guo, Y & Zhu, J 2015, 'Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization of a PM Transverse Flux Machine With Soft Magnetic Composite Core', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 1-4.
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Lei, G, Liu, C, Zhu, J & Guo, Y 2015, 'Techniques for Multilevel Design Optimization of Permanent Magnet Motors', IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 1574-1584.
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Lei, G, Wang, T, Zhu, J, Guo, Y & Wang, S 2015, 'System-Level Design Optimization Method for Electrical Drive Systems—Robust Approach', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 8, pp. 4702-4713.
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A system-level design optimization method under the framework of a deterministic approach was presented for electrical drive systems in our previous work, in which not only motors but also the integrated control schemes were designed and optimized to achieve good steady and dynamic performances. However, there are many unavoidable uncertainties (noise factors) in the industrial manufacturing process, such as material characteristics and manufacturing precision. These will result in big fluctuations for the product's reliability and quality in mass production, which are not investigated in the deterministic approach. Therefore, a robust approach based on the technique of design for six sigma is presented for the system-level design optimization of drive systems to improve the reliability and quality of products in batch production in this work. Meanwhile, two system-level optimization frameworks are presented for the proposed method, namely, single-level (only at the system level) and multilevel frameworks. Finally, a drive system is investigated as an example, and detailed results are presented and discussed. It can be found that the reliability and quality levels of the investigated drive system have been greatly increased by using the proposed robust approach.

Lemke, C, Budka, M & Gabrys, B 2015, 'Metalearning: a survey of trends and technologies', Artificial Intelligence Review, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 117-130.
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Leung, D & Yu, N 2015, 'Maximum privacy without coherence, zero-error', Journal of Mathematical Physics, vol. 57, no. 9, p. 092202.
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We study the possible difference between the quantum and the privatecapacities of a quantum channel in the zero-error setting. For a family ofchannels introduced by arXiv:1312.4989, we demonstrate an extreme difference:the zero-error quantum capacity is zero, whereas the zero-error privatecapacity is maximum given the quantum output dimension.

Leyendekkers, JV & Shannon, AG 2015, 'The odd-number sequence: squares and sums', International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, vol. 46, no. 8, pp. 1222-1228.
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Leyendekkers, JV & Shannon, AG 2015, 'The structural relationships between Fibonacci and prime-generated odd-number sequences', Advanced Studies in Contemporary Mathematics (Kyungshang), vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 59-63.
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The prime-generated odd-number sequence Np = 2p-1,p prime, can yield some prime values for Np and these are used as indicators of Fibonacci Fp composites. This structural characteristic of integers yields a type of primality test which in turn enables composite Fp with factors of the form pk + 1 to be identified up top = 727.

Li, B, Guo, T, Zhu, X & Li, Z 2015, 'Reverse twin plant for efficient diagnosability testing and optimizing', Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 38, pp. 131-137.
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Model-based diagnosis in discrete event systems (DESs) is a major research topic in failure diagnosis, where diagnosability plays an important role in the construction of the diagnosis engine. To improve the solution efficiency for diagnosability, this paper proposes novel techniques to solve the problems of testing and optimizing for diagnosability. We propose a new concept, reverse twin plant, which is generated backwards from the final states of the DESs so there is no need to generate a complete copy of the DES model to determine the diagnosability. Such a design makes our testing algorithm much faster than existing methods. An efficient optimizing algorithm, which makes a non-diagnosable system diagnosable, is also proposed in the paper by expanding the minimal observable space with operation on just a part of the DES model. Examples and theoretical studies demonstrate the performance of the proposed designs.

Li, H, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Gao, X, Xu, J & Zhang, X 2015, 'Surface asperity evolution and microstructure analysis of Al 6061T5 alloy in a quasi-static cold uniaxial planar compression (CUPC)', Applied Surface Science, vol. 347, pp. 193-201.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. In a quasi-static cold uniaxial planar compression, surface asperity evolution and microstructure analysis of Al 6061T5 alloy are carried out by employing Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) methods. Strain rate affects the surface asperity evolution obviously. While lubrication can hinder the surface asperity flattening by constraining the surface localized deformation. Lubrication can accelerate the crystallization in CUPC process. It also impedes the activation of some orientation components by hindering the activation of related slip systems in light metal Al alloy.

Li, H, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Xu, J, Zhang, X, Gong, D & Han, J 2015, 'Study on Surface Asperity Flattening in Cold Quasi-Static Uniaxial Planar Compression by Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method', Tribology Letters, vol. 58, no. 3.
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Li, H, Öchsner, A, Wei, D, Ni, G & Jiang, Z 2015, 'Crystal plasticity finite element modelling of the effect of friction on surface asperity flattening in cold uniaxial planar compression', Applied Surface Science, vol. 359, pp. 236-244.
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Li, J, Lin, X, Rui, X, Rui, Y & Tao, D 2015, 'A Distributed Approach Toward Discriminative Distance Metric Learning.', IEEE Trans. Neural Networks Learn. Syst., vol. 26, no. 9, pp. 2111-2122.
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Distance metric learning (DML) is successful in discovering intrinsic relations in data. However, most algorithms are computationally demanding when the problem size becomes large. In this paper, we propose a discriminative metric learning algorithm, develop a distributed scheme learning metrics on moderate-sized subsets of data, and aggregate the results into a global solution. The technique leverages the power of parallel computation. The algorithm of the aggregated DML (ADML) scales well with the data size and can be controlled by the partition. We theoretically analyze and provide bounds for the error induced by the distributed treatment. We have conducted experimental evaluation of the ADML, both on specially designed tests and on practical image annotation tasks. Those tests have shown that the ADML achieves the state-of-the-art performance at only a fraction of the cost incurred by most existing methods.

Li, J, Wu, C & Hao, H 2015, 'An experimental and numerical study of reinforced ultra-high performance concrete slabs under blast loads', Materials & Design, vol. 82, pp. 64-76.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) which is characterized by high strength, high ductility and high toughness has been widely applied in modern structure construction. Outstanding mechanical feature of UHPC not only enables strong yet slim structure design but also highlights its potential in protective engineering against extreme loads like impact or explosion. In this research a series of reinforced concrete slabs are tested to determine their response under explosive loading conditions. Concrete materials used in the slab construction are ultra-high strength concrete (UHPC) and normal strength concrete (NSC). In total five slabs are tested including four UHPC slabs with varying reinforcement ratios and one control NSC slab with normal reinforcement. Explosive charges with TNT equivalent weights ranging from 1.0 to 14.0 kg at scaled distances ranging from 0.41 to 3.05m/kg^1/3 are used in the current experiments. Test results verified the effectiveness of UHPC slabs against blast loads. Numerical models are established in LS-DYNA to reproduce the field blast tests on UHPC slabs. The numerical results are compared with the field test data, and the feasibility and validity of the numerical predictions of UHPC slab responses are demonstrated.

Li, J, Wu, C & Hao, H 2015, 'Investigation of ultra-high performance concrete slab and normal strength concrete slab under contact explosion', Engineering Structures, vol. 102, pp. 395-408.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Dynamic performance of concrete structures under blast loading conditions is a topic of importance as such load generates severe structural damage including flexural damage, shear damage and concrete spall damage which may impose threats to the personnel and instruments shielded by the reinforced concrete structure. To mitigate blast effects on civil structures, a new kind of concrete material named Ultra-High-Performance-Concrete (UHPC) is now widely studied and applied. UHPC material is known for its high compressive and tensile strength, large energy absorption capacity as well as good workability and anti-abrasion ability. In a previous study, the performance of UHPC slab under blast loads had been investigated through free air explosion tests. The blast resistance capacity of UHPC had been demonstrated through comparison with normal strength concrete. In the present study, the dynamic performance of UHPC slab under contact charge explosion is experimentally studied and compared with normal strength concrete slab under the same loading scenario. Numerical models are established to reproduce both the previous free air explosion tests and the current contact explosion tests. In particular, finite element model is established to simulate the free air explosion test, and coupled smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method and finite element method is utilized to simulate the contact blast tests. Numerical results are compared with the experimental observations, and the feasibility and accuracy of the numerical model are validated.

Li, J, Wu, C, Hao, H & Su, Y 2015, 'Investigation of Ultra-High Performance Concrete under Static and Blast Loads', International Journal of Protective Structures, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 217-235.
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Conventional concrete works as an important construction material. However, conventional concrete is known to be brittle and prone to tensile failure and cracks. To overcome such defects and improve the dynamic performance of concrete against extreme loading conditions, concrete with different additions and formulae have been developed. In a recent study, to develop ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) material with better strength and crack control ability, super fine aggregates with high pozzolanic effect were mixed into the steel fibre reinforced concrete instead of the traditional graded coarse aggregates. Furthermore, to achieve high early age strength, nanoscale additives which can accelerate the hydration process of the ordinary Portland cement were also introduced into the concrete composite. A series of uniaxial compression and four-point bending tests had been performed in the laboratory to get the material properties of this innovative concrete material. Great improvement of the concrete uniaxial compressive strength and flexural tensile strength was observed. Field blast tests were carried out on columns made of this UHPC material. Superior blast resistance performance was observed. In the current study, based on the available test data, numerical models are developed and numerical simulations are carried out. The simulation results are found to comply well with the experimental results.

Li, JJ, Kim, K, Roohani-Esfahani, S-I, Guo, J, Kaplan, DL & Zreiqat, H 2015, 'A biphasic scaffold based on silk and bioactive ceramic with stratified properties for osteochondral tissue regeneration', Journal of Materials Chemistry B, vol. 3, no. 26, pp. 5361-5376.
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The developed biphasic scaffold featured a gradient of structural, mechanical and biological cues to match the segments of osteochondral tissue.

Li, K, Safavi-Naeini, M, Franklin, DR, Han, Z, Rosenfeld, AB, Hutton, B & Lerch, MLF 2015, 'A new virtual ring-based system matrix generator for iterative image reconstruction in high resolution small volume PET systems', PHYSICS IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY, vol. 60, no. 17, pp. 6949-6973.
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Li, N, Ferrie, C, Gross, JA, Kalev, A & Caves, CM 2015, 'Fisher-symmetric informationally complete measurements for pure states', Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 116, no. 18, pp. 180402-180402.
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We introduce a new kind of quantum measurement that is defined to besymmetric in the sense of uniform Fisher information across a set of parametersthat injectively represent pure quantum states in the neighborhood of afiducial pure state. The measurement is locally informationallycomplete---i.e., it uniquely determines these parameters, as opposed todistinguishing two arbitrary quantum states---and it is maximal in the sense ofa multi-parameter quantum Cramer-Rao bound. For a $d$-dimensional quantumsystem, requiring only local informational completeness allows us to reduce thenumber of outcomes of the measurement from a minimum close to but below $4d-3$,for the usual notion of global pure-state informational completeness, to$2d-1$.

Li, Q, Guo, J, Cao, X, Yuan, X, Rao, K, Zheng, Z, Liu, Z & Hu, S 2015, 'Trend of non‐communicable disease mortality for three common conditions in the elderly population from 2002 to 2010: A population‐based study in China', Chronic Diseases and Translational Medicine, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 152-157.
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AbstractObjectiveThere is a lack of data focusing on non‐communicable disease (NCD) mortality in the Chinese elderly population over the past decade.MethodsUsing mortality data from the Chinese Health Statistics, we explored the crude and age‐standardized mortality trend of three major NCDs in the Chinese population ≥65 years of age from 2002 to 2010, namely, malignant neoplasms, heart diseases, and cerebrovascular diseases. Subpopulations characterized as rural and urban residence, and by gender and age were examined separately.ResultsMortality increased with age and was higher among males than among females across the three NCDs, with the gender difference being most remarkable for malignant neoplasms and least for heart diseases mortality. Condition‐specific crude mortalities increased between 2002 and 2010, overall and in all the pre‐specified subpopulations. After age‐standardization, rising trends were observed for people ≥65 years old, and condition‐specific mortalities generally increased in rural regions and decreased in urban regions, especially for cerebrovascular diseases.ConclusionsThere were increasing trends for mortality due to malignant neoplasms, heart diseases, and cerebrovascular diseases in China between 2002 and 2010, which were largely driven by the population aging. Disparities existed by rural and urban residence, gender, and age.

Li, S & Liu, W 2015, 'Cardinal directions: a comparison of direction relation matrix and objects interaction matrix', International Journal of Geographical Information Science, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 194-216.
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© 2014 Taylor & Francis. How to express and reason with cardinal directions between extended objects such as lines and regions is an important problem in qualitative spatial reasoning (QSR), a common subfield of geographical information science and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The direction relation matrix (DRM) model, proposed by Goyal and Egenhofer in 1997, is one very expressive relation model for this purpose. Unlike many other relation models in QSR, the set-theoretic converse of a DRM relation is not necessarily representable in DRM. Schneider et al. regard this as a serious shortcoming and propose, in their work published in ACM TODS (2012), the objects interaction matrix (OIM) model for modelling cardinal directions between complex regions. OIM is also a tiling-based model that consists of two phases: the tiling phase and the interpretation phase. Although it was claimed that OIM is a novel concept, we show that it is not so different from DRM if we represent the cardinal direction of two regions a and b by both the DRM of a to b and that of b to a. Under this natural assumption, we give methods for computing DRMs from OIMs and vice versa, and show that OIM is almost the same as DRM in the tiling phase, and becomes less precise after interpretation. Furthermore, exploiting the similarity between the two models, we prove that the consistency of a complete basic OIM network can be decided in cubic time. This answers an open problem raised by Schneider et al. regarding efficient algorithms for reasoning with OIM.

Li, S-Y, Chen, S-A, Lin, C-T, Ko, L-W, Yang, C-H & Chen, H-H 2015, 'Generalized Synchronization of Nonlinear Chaotic Systems through Natural Bioinspired Controlling Strategy', Abstract and Applied Analysis, vol. 2015, pp. 1-14.
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A novel bioinspired control strategy design is proposed for generalized synchronization of nonlinear chaotic systems, combining the bioinspired stability theory, fuzzy modeling, and a novel, simple-form Lyapunov control function design of derived high efficient, heuristic and bioinspired controllers. Three main contributions are concluded: (1) apply the bioinspired stability theory to further analyze the stability of fuzzy error systems; the high performance of controllers has been shown in previous study by Li and Ge 2009, (2) a new Lyapunov control function based on bioinspired stability theory is designed to achieve synchronization without using traditional LMI method, which is a simple linear homogeneous function of states and the process of designing controller to synchronize two fuzzy chaotic systems becomes much simpler, and (3) three different situations of synchronization are proposed; classical master and slave Lorenz systems, slave Chen’s system, and Rossler’s system as functional system are illustrated to further show the effectiveness and feasibility of our novel strategy. The simulation results show that our novel control strategy can be applied to different and complicated control situations with high effectiveness.

Li, W, Dai, Y, Ma, L, Hao, H, Lu, H, Albinson, R & Li, Z 2015, 'Oil-saving pathways until 2030 for road freight transportation in China based on a cost-optimization model', Energy, vol. 86, pp. 369-384.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This paper proposed a COSM (cost-optimization superstructure model) and derived the optimized oil-saving pathways for road freight transportation in China until 2030. The optimization target of the COSM was to minimize the accumulated energy and vehicle costs from 2010 to 2030 by choosing the most cost-effective fuel option for newly registered trucks each year. Based on the COSM, three scenarios were developed to evaluate the oil-saving pathway in terms of imported crude oil price, available alternative fuels and GHG emission reduction. The scenario analysis results indicate that: (1) for scenario A, the accumulated oil-saving potential was approximately about 13%, while the oil-saving potential of improving fuel consumption rate and load running rate was 17% and 16%; (2) for scenario B, the accumulated oil-saving potential increased to 82% in reference oil price and 23% in low oil price; (3) for scenario C, to reduce per ton of GHG emission, the increased cost will increase from 34 USD to 450 USD when the GHG emission target decreased from 15.4 billion tons to the turn point of 13.5 billion tons.

Li, W, Huang, Z, Cao, F, Sun, Z & Shah, SP 2015, 'Effects of nano-silica and nano-limestone on flowability and mechanical properties of ultra-high-performance concrete matrix', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 95, pp. 366-374.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. The effects of nano-silica/SiO2 (NS) and nano-limestone/CaCO3 (NC) on the flowability, strengths and microstructure of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) matrix under different curing conditions were investigated in this study. The NS and NC were incorporated at different ratios as partial mass replacements for cement. On the microstructure aspect, the results verify that the NS acts as an effective filling material, which reduced porous areas and accelerated the cement hydration process by pozzolanic effect. On the other hand, the NC acts mainly as an inert filler material that created a denser microstructure, but accelerated the cement hydration process through boundary nucleation growth effect. On the mechanical properties aspect, a threshold value of the NS and NC contents were found so that the compressive, flexural strengths and flexural to compressive strength ratio of the UHPC matrix were found to increase as the NS and NC contents increased towards the threshold content, and then to decrease with the increase of NS and NC contents when the threshold was surpassed. Corresponding to the highest measured mechanical strengths of UHPC matrix, the optimal contents of NS and NC are around 1.0% and 3.0%, respectively. The research concluded that the NS and NC contents are critical to the performance of UHPC matrix.

Li, W, Xiao, J, Kawashima, S, Shekhawat, GS & Shah, SP 2015, 'Experimental Investigation on Quantitative Nanomechanical Properties of Cement Paste', ACI Materials Journal, vol. 112, no. 2, pp. 229-238.
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Copyright © 2015, American Concrete Institute. All rights reserved. Nanoindentation, quantitative modulus mapping, and PeakForce quantitative nanomechanical mapping (QNM) are applied to investigate the quantitative nanomechanics of hardened cement paste at different spatial resolutions. The elastic modulus measured by static nanoindentation is slightly higher than those measured by the other methods. The average elastic modulus and probability obtained by PeakForce QNM are typically consistent with those found by modulus mapping. Both modulus mapping and PeakForce QNM can be used to discriminate different material phases in cement paste at the nanoscale. It concludes that cement paste is a granular material in which the sub-micron scale grains or basic nanoscale units pack together. Moreover, the high resolution Peak-Force QNM can provide an efficient tool for identifying nanomechanical properties, particle sizes, and thickness of the interface between different nanoscale grains.

Li, W, Xiao, J, Shi, C & Poon, CS 2015, 'Structural Behaviour of Composite Members with Recycled Aggregate Concrete — An Overview', Advances in Structural Engineering, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 919-938.
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A series of investigations on structural behaviour, durability, fire-resistance and seismic performance of composite members with recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) have been carried out in the past 10 years (2005–2014). This paper is consisted of three parts: the first part introduces and discusses the research progress in regard to the structural behaviour of RAC filled steel tubular columns and beams; the second part concentrates on the structural behaviour of steel-reinforced RAC members, including columns, beams, shear walls and slabs; and the third part focuses on the long-term performance of composite members with RAC, involving fire resistance, durability and seismic performance. It seems that RAC composite members with different replacement ratios of recycled coarse aggregate have slightly lower or similar structural behaviour compared to that of normal concrete composite members. Review results reveal that it is feasible to apply steel-RAC composite members as structural applications. This intensive review provides a reasonable knowledge of the structural behaviour of steel-RAC composite members, and recommends further investigations on the failure mechanics and durability of steel-RAC composite members which are needed to promote safe and economic application in the future.

Li, X, Li, J, Wang, H, Huang, X, He, B, Yao, Y, Wang, J, Zhang, H, Ngo, HH & Guo, W 2015, 'A filtration model for prediction of local flux distribution and optimization of submerged hollow fiber membrane module', AIChE Journal, vol. 61, no. 12, pp. 4377-4386.
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A filtration mathematical model was developed on the basis of complete mass balance and momentum balance for the local flux distribution prediction and optimization of submerged hollow fiber membrane module. In this model, the effect of radial permeate flow on internal flow resistance was considered through a slip parameter obtained from the local flux experiments. The effects of fiber length, inside diameter, and average operating flux on local flux distribution were investigated using this model. The predicted results were in good agreement with the experimental data obtained from literature. It was also found that the asymmetry distribution of local flux could be intensified with the increase of average operating flux and fiber length, but slowed down with the increase of fiber inside diameter. Furthermore, the simulation coupled with energy consumption analysis could efficiently predict and illustrate the relationship between fiber geometry and water production efficiency. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 4377–4386, 2015

Li, X, Nemcik, J, Mirzaghorbanali, A, Aziz, N & Rasekh, H 2015, 'Analytical model of shear behaviour of a fully grouted cable bolt subjected to shearing', International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, vol. 80, pp. 31-39.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. A fully grouted cable bolt is normally loaded at rock joints by a combination of the axial and shear forces causing both axial extension and shear deformation of the cable. The proposed analyses presented here attempts to predict the joint shear strength and shear displacement. The analyses are based on the statically indeterminate beam theory and some basic findings and conclusions of other researchers. Parametrical investigation is performed on four influence factors including bolt pretension, joint friction angle, concrete strength and bolt installation angle. Although the true plastic moduli of the cable bolt deflecting section at failure are the essential parameters in this analysis, they are practically impossible to determine. Thus, the average cable moduli obtained from the cable tensile strength tests were used. The proposed analytical model was compared with the experimental results, showing a good agreement. This analytical work aims to develop a simple tool for the practicing geotechnical engineer to effectively evaluate the cable shear behaviour and the influence of fully grouted cable bolts on joint shear resistance.

Li, X, Wang, Z, Zhang, Z, Chen, L, Cheng, J, Ni, W, Wang, B & Xie, E 2015, 'Light Illuminated α−Fe2O3/Pt Nanoparticles as Water Activation Agent for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1.
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AbstractThe photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is hampered by strong bonds of H2O molecules and low ionic conductivity of pure water. The photocatalysts dispersed in pure water can serve as a water activation agent, which provides an alternative pathway to overcome such limitations. Here we report that the light illuminated α−Fe2O3/Pt nanoparticles may produce a reservoir of reactive intermediates including H2O2, ·OH, OH− and H+ capable of promoting the pure water reduction/oxidation half−reactions at cathode and highly photocatalytic−active TiO2/In2S3/AgInS2 photoanode, respectively. Remarkable photocurrent enhancement has been obtained with α−Fe2O3/Pt as water activation agent. The use of α−Fe2O3/Pt to promote the reactivity of pure water represents a new paradigm for reproducible hydrogen fuel provision by PEC water splitting, allowing efficient splitting of pure water without adding of corrosive chemicals or sacrificial agent.

Li, X, Xu, G, Chen, E & Zong, Y 2015, 'Learning recency based comparative choice towards point-of-interest recommendation', Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 42, no. 9, pp. 4274-4283.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. With the prevalence of GPS-enabled smart phones, Location Based Social Network (LBSN) has emerged and become a hot research topic during the past few years. As one of the most important components in LBSN, Points-of-Interests (POIs) has been extensively studied by both academia and industry, yielding POI recommendations to enhance user experience in exploring the city. In conventional methods, rating vectors for both users and POIs are utilized for similarity calculation, which might yield inaccuracy due to the differences of user biases. In our opinion, the rating values themselves do not give exact preferences of users, however the numeric order of ratings given by a user within a certain period provides a hint of preference order of POIs by such user. Firstly, we propose an approach to model users preference by employing utility theory. Secondly, We devise a collection-wise learning method over partial orders through an effective stochastic gradient descent algorithm. We test our model on two real world datasets, i.e., Yelp and TripAdvisor, by comparing with some state-of-the-art approaches including PMF and several user preference modeling methods. In terms of MAP and Recall, we averagely achieve 15% improvement with regard to the baseline methods. The results show the significance of comparative choice in a certain time window and show its superiority to the existing methods.

Li, X, Zhang, H, Hou, Y, Gao, Y, Li, J, Guo, W & Ngo, HH 2015, 'In situ investigation of combined organic and colloidal fouling for nanofiltration membrane using ultrasonic time domain reflectometry', Desalination, vol. 362, pp. 43-51.
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Li, Y & Li, J 2015, 'A Highly Adjustable Base Isolator Utilizing Magnetorheological Elastomer: Experimental Testing and Modeling', JOURNAL OF VIBRATION AND ACOUSTICS-TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME, vol. 137, no. 1.
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Copyright © 2015 by ASME. This paper presents a recent research advance on the development of a novel adaptive seismic isolation system to be used in seismic protection of civil structures. A highly adjustable laminated magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) base isolator was developed and experimental results show that the prototypical MRE base isolator provides increase in lateral stiffness up to 1630%. To facilitate the structural control development using such adaptive MRE base isolator, an analytical model was developed to simulate its behaviors. Comparison between the analytical model and experimental data proves the effectiveness of such model in reproducing the behavior of MRE base isolator.

Li, Y & Li, J 2015, 'Finite element design and analysis of adaptive base isolator utilizing laminated multiple magnetorheological elastomer layers', Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, vol. 26, no. 14, pp. 1861-1870.
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Available magnetorheological elastomer devices normally consist one to two layers of small-size magnetorheological elastomer materials. To be used in large-scale structures, magnetorheological elastomer devices with multiple larger magnetorheological elastomer materials are expected. This article addresses the critical issue in designing a large-scale device with multiple layers of low magnetic conductive magnetorheological elastomer materials, that is, magnetic circuit design. The primary target in magnetic circuit design for magnetorheological elastomer devices is to provide sufficient and uniform magnetic field to all magnetorheological elastomer layers in the device. In this article, finite element investigations are conducted. An innovative magnetic circuit design is proposed for magnetorheological elastomer base isolator with multi-layer of magnetorheological elastomer materials. In the design, laminated magnetorheological elastomer and steel structure is adopted as part of the magnetic core together with two steel blocks. Cylindrical steel tube is used as the yoke of the magnetic circuit. Two plates are placed on the top and bottom of the device to form enclosed magnetic path in the device. Finite element results showed that such innovative magnetic design is able to provide sufficient and uniform magnetic field to all magnetorheological elastomer layers, that is, 25 magnetorheological elastomer layers with thickness of 1 mm and diameter of 120 mm in this case. Finally, the influence of lateral deformation of the magnetorheological elastomer base isolator on the magnetic field is investigated. It is found that the magnetic field in magnetorheological elastomer materials deteriorates when the deformation of the device increases.

Li, Y, Liu, Z, Zhang, Y, Su, QP, Xue, B, Shao, S, Zhu, Y, Xu, X, Wei, S & Sun, Y 2015, 'Live‐cell and super‐resolution imaging reveal that the distribution of wall‐associated protein A is correlated with the cell chain integrity of Streptococcus mutans', Molecular Oral Microbiology, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 376-383.
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SummaryStreptococcus mutans is a primary pathogen responsible for dental caries. It has an outstanding ability to form biofilm, which is vital for virulence. Previous studies have shown that knockout of Wall‐associated protein A (WapA) affects cell chain and biofilm formation of S. mutans. As a surface protein, the distribution of WapA remains unknown, but it is important to understand the mechanism underlying the function of WapA. This study applied the fluorescence protein mCherry as a reporter gene to characterize the dynamic distribution of WapA in S. mutans via time‐lapse and super‐resolution fluorescence imaging. The results revealed interesting subcellular distribution patterns of WapA in single, dividing and long chains of S. mutans cells. It appears at the middle of the cell and moves to the poles as the cell grows and divides. In a cell chain, after each round of cell division, such dynamic relocation results in WapA distribution at the previous cell division sites, resulting in a pattern where WapA is located at the boundary of two adjacent cell pairs. This WapA distribution pattern corresponds to the breaking segmentation of wapA deletion cell chains. The dynamic relocation of WapA through the cell cycle increases our understanding of the mechanism of WapA in maintaining cell chain integrity and biofilm formation.

Li, Z, He, Y, Wong, L & Li, J 2015, 'Burial Level Change Defines a High Energetic Relevance for Protein Binding Interfaces', IEEE-ACM TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 410-421.
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Protein-protein interfaces defined through atomic contact or solvent accessibility change are widely adopted in structural biology studies. But, these definitions cannot precisely capture energetically important regions at protein interfaces. The burial depth of an atom in a protein is related to the atom's energy. This work investigates how closely the change in burial level of an atom/residue upon complexation is related to the binding. Burial level change is different from burial level itself. An atom deeply buried in a monomer with a high burial level may not change its burial level after an interaction and it may have little burial level change. We hypothesize that an interface is a region of residues all undergoing burial level changes after interaction. By this definition, an interface can be decomposed into an onion-like structure according to the burial level change extent. We found that our defined interfaces cover energetically important residues more precisely, and that the binding free energy of an interface is distributed progressively from the outermost layer to the core. These observations are used to predict binding hot spots. Our approach's F-measure performance on a benchmark dataset of alanine mutagenesis residues is much superior or similar to those by complicated energy modeling or machine learning approaches.

Li, Z, Qin, L, Cheng, H, Zhang, X & Zhou, X 2015, 'TRIP: An Interactive Retrieving-Inferring Data Imputation Approach.', IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng., vol. 27, no. 9, pp. 2550-2563.
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© 2015 IEEE. Data imputation aims at filling in missing attribute values in databases. Most existing imputation methods to string attribute values are inferring-based approaches, which usually fail to reach a high imputation recall by just inferring missing values from the complete part of the data set. Recently, some retrieving-based methods are proposed to retrieve missing values from external resources such as the World Wide Web, which tend to reach a much higher imputation recall, but inevitably bring a large overhead by issuing a large number of search queries. In this paper, we investigate the interaction between the inferring-based methods and the retrieving-based methods. We show that retrieving a small number of selected missing values can greatly improve the imputation recall of the inferring-based methods. With this intuition, we propose an inTeractive Retrieving-Inferring data imPutation approach (TRIP), which performs retrieving and inferring alternately in filling in missing attribute values in a data set. To ensure the high recall at the minimum cost, TRIP faces a challenge of selecting the least number of missing values for retrieving to maximize the number of inferable values. Our proposed solution is able to identify an optimal retrieving-inferring scheduling scheme in deterministic data imputation, and the optimality of the generated scheme is theoretically analyzed with proofs. We also analyze with an example that the optimal scheme is not feasible to be achieved in τ-constrained stochastic data imputation (τ-SDI), but still, our proposed solution identifies an expected-optimal scheme in τ-SDI. Extensive experiments on four data collections show that TRIP retrieves on average 20 percent missing values and achieves the same high recall that was reached by the retrieving-based approach.

Liang, J, Vinh Nguyen, Q, Simoff, S & Lin Huang, M 2015, 'Divide and Conquer treemaps: Visualizing large trees with various shapes', Journal of Visual Languages & Computing, vol. 31, no. 2015, pp. 104-127.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Most existing treemaps achieve the space utilization of a single geometrical area, mostly rectangle. Limiting visualization to rectangles could block the human capability on graph recognition, including orientation, shape and differentiation etc. To relax rectangular constraint, we propose a flexible enclosure approach with three algorithms. It partitions large hierarchical structures within a confined display area with different shapes for real-time applications. Our approach is based on the combination of Divide-and-Conquer method and the treemap paradigm. The partitioning algorithms generate three types of layouts with polygonal, angular and rectangular titling, which are flexible to be used separately or combined. We present technical details including the visualization results in the experiments and in the cases studies with real data sets. We evaluated the visualization based on graph drawing aesthetics and optimization criteria. Our usability study shows that (1) treemaps with layout variability support utilization of human capability in graph perception and (2) treemaps adopted in different shaped containers could have a positive impact on user satisfaction and awareness during visual data exploration.

Liao, H, Xu, Z, Zeng, X-J & Merigo, JM 2015, 'Framework of Group Decision Making With Intuitionistic Fuzzy Preference Information', IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 1211-1227.
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Liao, H, Xu, Z, Zeng, X-J & Merigó, JM 2015, 'Qualitative decision making with correlation coefficients of hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets', Knowledge-Based Systems, vol. 76, pp. 127-138.
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Liao, S-H, Hsieh, J-G, Chang, J-Y & Lin, C-T 2015, 'Training neural networks via simplified hybrid algorithm mixing Nelder–Mead and particle swarm optimization methods', Soft Computing, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 679-689.
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© 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. In this paper, a new and simplified hybrid algorithm mixing the simplex method of Nelder and Mead (NM) and particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO), abbreviated as SNM-PSO, is proposed for the training of the parameters of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Our method differs from other hybrid PSO methods in that, n+1 particles, where n is the dimension of the search space, are randomly selected (without sorting), at each iteration of the proposed algorithm for use as the initial vertices of the NM algorithm, and each such particle is replaced by the corresponding final vertex after executing the NM algorithm. All the particles are then updated using the standard PSO algorithm. Our proposed method is simpler than other similar hybrid PSO methods and places more emphasis on the exploration of the search space. Some simulation problems will be provided to compare the performances of the proposed method with PSO and other similar hybrid PSO methods in training an ANN. These simulations show that the proposed method outperforms the other compared methods.

Lijun Zhang, Xiaohua Xia & Jiangfeng Zhang 2015, 'Medium Density Control for Coal Washing Dense Medium Cyclone Circuits', IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 1117-1122.
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Lin, C-T, Chiu, T-C & Gramann, K 2015, 'EEG correlates of spatial orientation in the human retrosplenial complex', NeuroImage, vol. 120, pp. 123-132.
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© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Studies on spatial navigation reliably demonstrate that the retrosplenial complex (RSC) plays a pivotal role for allocentric spatial information processing by transforming egocentric and allocentric spatial information into the respective other spatial reference frame (SRF). While more and more imaging studies investigate the role of the RSC in spatial tasks, high temporal resolution measures such as electroencephalography (EEG) are missing. To investigate the function of the RSC in spatial navigation with high temporal resolution we used EEG to analyze spectral perturbations during navigation based on allocentric and egocentric SRF. Participants performed a path integration task in a clearly structured virtual environment providing allothetic information. Continuous EEG recordings were decomposed by independent component analysis (ICA) with subsequent source reconstruction of independent time source series using equivalent dipole modeling. Time-frequency transformation was used to investigate reference frame-specific orientation processes during navigation as compared to a control condition with identical visual input but no orientation task. Our results demonstrate that navigation based on an egocentric reference frame recruited a network including the parietal, motor, and occipital cortices with dominant perturbations in the alpha band and theta modulation in frontal cortex. Allocentric navigation was accompanied by performance-related desynchronization of the 8-13. Hz frequency band and synchronization in the 12-14. Hz band in the RSC. The results support the claim that the retrosplenial complex is central to translating egocentric spatial information into allocentric reference frames. Modulations in different frequencies with different time courses in the RSC further provide first evidence of two distinct neural processes reflecting translation of spatial information based on distinct reference frames and the computation of heading changes.

Lin, C-T, Prasad, M & Saxena, A 2015, 'An Improved Polynomial Neural Network Classifier Using Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm', IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 1389-1401.
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© 2015 IEEE. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to improve the classification performance of a polynomial neural network (PNN). In this approach, the partial descriptions (PDs) are generated at the first layer based on all possible combinations of two features of the training input patterns of a dataset. The set of PDs from the first layer, the set of all input features, and a bias constitute the chromosome of the real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA). A system of equations is solved to determine the values of the real coefficients of each chromosome of the RCGA for the training dataset with the mean classification accuracy (CA) as the fitness value of each chromosome. To adjust these values for unknown testing patterns, the RCGA is iterated in the usual manner using simple selection, crossover, mutation, and elitist selection. The method is tested extensively with the University of California, Irvine benchmark datasets by utilizing tenfold cross validation of each dataset, and the performance is compared with various well-known state-of-the-art techniques. The results obtained from the proposed method in terms of CA are superior and outperform other known methods on various datasets.

Lin, H, Batty, M, Jørgensen, SE, Fu, B, Konecny, M, Voinov, A, Torrens, P, Lu, G, Zhu, A, Wilson, JP, Gong, J, Kolditz, O, Bandrova, T & Chen, M 2015, 'Virtual Environments Begin to Embrace Process‐based Geographic Analysis', Transactions in GIS, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 493-498.
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Lin, S, Ni, W, Tian, H & Liu, RP 2015, 'An Evolutionary Game Theoretic Framework for Femtocell Radio Resource Management', IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 14, no. 11, pp. 6365-6376.
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© 2002-2012 IEEE. Plug-and-play femtocells will be an integrating part of future cellular networks. Resource management and interference mitigation become challenging, suffering from severely delayed network control in large-scale deployments. We propose a new game theoretic framework, where fast interference suppression is decoupled from the relatively slow frequency allocation process to tolerate the delayed control. The key idea is to cast femtocell clustering as an outer-loop evolutionary game coupled with bankruptcy channel allocation, which drives the cells to spontaneously switch to less interfered clusters. Within each cluster, we design an inner-loop non-cooperative power control game, such that the requirement of prompt control is eliminated. The two loops interact recursively with analytically confirmed stability. Simulations show that our framework can improve the throughput by 13.2% in a network of 200 cells, compared to the prior art. The gain grows further with the network size.

Ling, SH 2015, 'Iterated Function System-Based Crossover Operation for Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm', Journal of Intelligent Learning Systems and Applications, vol. 07, no. 02, pp. 37-41.
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Liu, A, Richards, L, Bladen, CL, Ingham, E, Fisher, J & Tipper, JL 2015, 'The biological response to nanometre-sized polymer particles', Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 23, pp. 38-51.
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Liu, C, Zhu, J, Wang, Y, Guo, Y & Lei, G 2015, 'Comparison of Claw-Pole Machines With Different Rotor Structures', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 1-4.
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Liu, C, Zhu, J, Wang, Y, Guo, Y, Lei, G & Liu, X 2015, 'Development of a low-cost double rotor axial flux motor with soft magnetic composite and ferrite permanent magnet materials', Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 117, no. 17, pp. 17B507-17B507.
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This paper proposes a low-cost double rotor axial flux motor (DRAFM) with low cost soft magnetic composite (SMC) core and ferrite permanent magnets (PMs). The topology and operating principle of DRAFM and design considerations for best use of magnetic materials are presented. A 905 W 4800 rpm DRAFM is designed for replacing the high cost NdFeB permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) in a refrigerator compressor. By using the finite element method, the electromagnetic parameters and performance of the DRAFM operated under the field oriented control scheme are calculated. Through the analysis, it is shown that that the SMC and ferrite PM materials can be good candidates for low-cost electric motor applications.

Liu, D, Lin, C-T, Tan, KC, Kendall, G & Cangelosi, A 2015, 'CIS Publication Spotlight [Publication Spotlight]', IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 16-17.
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Liu, D, Lin, C-T, Tan, KC, Kendall, G & Cangelosi, A 2015, 'CIS Publication Spotlight [Publication Spotlight]', IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 14-52.
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Liu, D, Lin, C-T, Tan, KC, Kendall, G & Cangelosi, A 2015, 'CIS Publication Spotlight [Publication Spotlight]', IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 7-9.
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Liu, D, Lin, C-T, Tan, KC, Kendall, G & Cangelosi, A 2015, 'CIS Publication Spotlight [Publication Spotlight]', IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 5-7.
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Liu, H & Madanat, S 2015, 'Adaptive optimisation methods in system-level bridge management', Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 884-896.
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We introduce an approach for modelling the structural deterioration of components of bridges for maintenance optimization purposes. The Markov chain model is found in the maintenance and repair problems since the early 60's, is introduced to the maintenance of road infrastructure in the 1980's, and is made to drive the current bridge maintenance optimization systems. While this model results into solvable programming problems and provides a solution, there are a number of criticisms associated with it. We highlight the shortfalls of the Markov model for bridge lifetime assessment and promote the use of stochastic processes.

Liu, H, Hou, X, Kim, J & Zhong, Y 2015, 'Decoupled Robust Velocity Control for Uncertain Quadrotors', Asian Journal of Control, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 225-233.
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AbstractIn this paper, a decoupled robust velocity control method is investigated for a quadrotor. Although the quadrotor dynamics involves inter‐axis coupling and nonlinearity, the quadrotor system is divided into four single‐input single‐output (SISO) subsystems. For each subsystem, a linear time‐invariant robust controller is proposed, which uses its own states and consists of a nominal controller and a robust compensator. The nominal controller is designed by the proportional‐integral‐derivative (PID) control method to achieve the desired tracking for the nominal system. A robust compensator is added to restrain the influence of the parametric uncertainties, nonlinear dynamics, coupling, and external disturbances. The tracking error of each subsystem is proven to converge into an a priori set in the neighborhood of the origin in a finite time. Experimental results on the quadrotor demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

Liu, H, Laba, T, Massi, L, Jan, S, Usherwood, T, Patel, A, Hayman, NE, Cass, A, Eades, A, Lawrence, C & Peiris, DP 2015, 'Facilitators and barriers to implementation of a pragmatic clinical trial in Aboriginal health services', Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 203, no. 1, pp. 24-27.
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© 2015, Australasian Medical Publishing Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. Objective: To identify facilitators and barriers to clinical trial implementation in Aboriginal health services. Design: Indepth interview study with thematic analysis. Setting: Six Aboriginal community-controlled health services and one government-run service involved in the Kanyini Guidelines Adherence with the Polypill (KGAP) study, a pragmatic randomised controlled trial that aimed to improve adherence to indicated drug treatments for people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Participants: 32 health care providers and 21 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. Results: A fundamental enabler was that participants considered the research to be governed and endorsed by the local health service. That the research was perceived to address a health priority for communities was also highly motivating for both providers and patients. Enlisting the support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff champions who were visible to the community as the main source of information about the trial was particularly important. The major implementation barrier for staff was balancing their service delivery roles with adherence to often highly demanding trial-related procedures. This was partially alleviated by the research team’s provision of onsite support and attempts to make trial processes more streamlined. Although more intensive support was highly desired, there were usually insufficient resources to provide this. Conclusion: Despite strong community and health service support, major investments in time and resources are needed to ensure successful implementation and minimal disruption to already overstretched, routine services. Trial budgets will necessarily be inflated as a result. Funding agencies need to consider these additional resource demands when supporting trials of a similar nature.

Liu, H, Wang, J, Wijayaratna, K, Dixit, VV & Waller, ST 2015, 'Integrating the Bus Vehicle Class Into the Cell Transmission Model', IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 2620-2630.
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© 2015 IEEE. The traditional cell transmission model (CTM), a well-known dynamic traffic simulation method, does not cater to the presence of moving bottlenecks, which may be caused by buses traveling within a network. This may affect the dynamics of congestion that is present and may also affect route choice by all vehicles on a network. The main contribution of this paper is to provide an analytical formulation for a mixed traffic system that includes cars and buses, which realistically replicates moving bottlenecks. We modify the CTM model using methods from the lagged CTM to recognize speed differentials between the free-flow speed of buses and cars. In addition, the impact of capacity reduction caused by buses was incorporated. These developments led to the replication of moving bottlenecks caused by buses within the CTM framework. The formulated variant of CTM was utilized to determine a system optimal assignment that minimizes the total passenger travel time across cars and buses. The proposed modified CTM model, defined as the BUS-CTM, has been applied on a road link and a more detailed network to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. The numerical results and the depiction of the bottleneck phenomenon within the model suggests that the BUS-CTM obtains more realistic results compared with the application of the traditional CTM in a mixed car-bus transportation system. The sensitivity analysis shows that bus passenger demand, passenger occupancy of bus, and bus free-flow speeds are the key parameters that influence the system performance.

Liu, H, Zhang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Wu, H, Cheng, C, Guo, Z & Zhang, C 2015, 'Carbohydrate-based activated carbon with high surface acidity and basicity for nickel removal from synthetic wastewater', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 64, pp. 52048-52056.
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The feasibility of preparing activated carbon from carbohydrates (glucose, sucrose and starch) with H₃PO₄ activation was evaluated by comparing its physicochemical properties and Ni(ii) adsorption ability with a reference Phragmites australis-based activated carbon.

Liu, H, Zhang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Wu, H, Guo, Z, Cheng, C & Zhang, C 2015, 'Effect on physical and chemical characteristics of activated carbon on adsorption of trimethoprim: mechanisms study', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 104, pp. 85187-85195.
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Five different types of activated carbon varying in porosity, structure, and functional groups were prepared and used as adsorbents.

Liu, H, Zhu, X, Boon, CC & He, X 2015, 'Cell-Based Variable-Gain Amplifiers With Accurate dB-Linear Characteristic in 0.18 µm CMOS Technology', IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 586-596.
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A simple and robust “cell-based” method is presented for the design of variable-gain amplifiers (VGAs). The proposed unit cell utilizes a unique gain compensation method and achieves accurate dB-linear characteristic across a wide tuning range with low power consumption and wide bandwidth. Several such highly dB-linear unit cells can be cascaded to provide the required gain range for a VGA. To prove the concept, single-cell, 5-cell, 10-cell and 15-cell reconfigurable VGAs were fabricated in a standard 0.18 µm CMOS technology. The measurement results show that the 10-cell VGA achieves a gain range of 38.6 dB with less than 0.19 dB gain error. The 15-cell VGA can either be used as recon- figurable VGA for analog control voltage or tunable PGA for digital control stream, with the flexibility of scaling gain range, gain error/step and power consumption. For the VGA at highest gain setting, it consumes 1.12 mW and achieves a gain range of 56 dB, gain error less than 0.3 dB.

Liu, H, Zhu, X, Boon, CC & Yi, X 2015, 'Design of an oscillator with low phase noise and medium output power in a 0.25 µm GaN‐on‐SiC high electron‐mobility transistors technology', IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, vol. 9, no. 8, pp. 795-801.
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Liu, H, Zhu, X, Boon, CC, Yi, X & Kong, L 2015, 'A 71 dB 150 <formula formulatype='inline'><tex Notation='TeX'>$\mu {\rm W}$</tex></formula> Variable-Gain Amplifier in 0.18 <formula formulatype='inline'><tex Notation='TeX'>$\mu{\rm m}$</tex></formula> CMOS Technology', IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 334-336.
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Liu, J, Ji, J, Zhou, J, Xiang, L & Zhao, L 2015, 'Adaptive group consensus in uncertain networked Euler-Lagrange systems under directed topology', NONLINEAR DYNAMICS, vol. 82, no. 3, pp. 1145-1157.
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Liu, K, Law, S-S & Zhu, X-Q 2015, 'Sensitivity Enhancement for Structural Condition Assessment with Noisy Excitation or with Only Output', International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics, vol. 15, no. 06, pp. 1450083-1450083.
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Revisited herein is the response sensitivity method for structural condition assessment. The performance of a sensitivity enhancement technique for structural damage identification is discussed with reference to cases with noisy excitation or with only output. An extended study on the structural condition assessment is conducted based on a newly developed force identification technique and the response sensitivity enhancement method. Numerical simulations with a planar truss structure show that the adverse effect of noise in excitation cannot be ignored in damage detection. A two-step method including the sensitivity enhancement technique for damage detection could improve the identification accuracy with less influence from the identified excitations. The improved structural condition assessment with sensitivity enhancement technique out-performs the conventional sensitivity approach with more accurate results from the truss structure studied even with a 10% noise in the measured responses.

Liu, K, Law, S-S & Zhu, X-Q 2015, 'Substructural Condition Assessment Based on Force Identification and Interface Force Sensitivity', International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics, vol. 15, no. 02, pp. 1450046-1450046.
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Time domain substructural condition assessment method is actively researched in recent years to avoid the problem with uncertainties in the different components of the structure, boundary conditions and with an improved effort in the inverse computation. Since the interface force between substructures would vary with the existence of local damages and excitation in the substructures, existing condition assessment method for a full structure cannot be applied directly to the substructures. Also, most existing approaches adopt the state space method in the response prediction. However, the state space method can be shown in this paper inaccurate in the forward substructural dynamic analysis due to the discretization error, and therefore identification based on this method cannot give satisfactory result for a substructure. The force identification for a full structure based on the explicit Newmark-β method has been shown superior to the state space method [K. Liu et al., J. Sound Vibr.33(3) (2014) 730–744]. This method is extended in this paper for substructural interface force identification. The variation of interface forces between substructures with variation in the substructural condition is illustrated with a plane truss structure. Subsequent condition assessment based on substructural response sensitivity is proposed with the analytical derivation of the sensitivity taking into account the interface force sensitivity which is not small to be ignored. The new damage detection method based on the explicit Newmark-β method and the substructural response sensitivity is verified numerically with different damage scenarios in a plane truss structure giving satisfactory results.

Liu, M, Dou, W, Yu, S & Zhang, Z 2015, 'A Decentralized Cloud Firewall Framework with Resources Provisioning Cost Optimization', IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 621-631.
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Liu, Q, Song, R & Li, J 2015, 'Inference of gene interaction networks using conserved subsequential patterns from multiple time course gene expression datasets', BMC Genomics, vol. 16, no. S12, pp. 1-16.
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© 2015 Liu et al. Motivation: Deciphering gene interaction networks (GINs) from time-course gene expression (TCGx) data is highly valuable to understand gene behaviors (e.g., activation, inhibition, time-lagged causality) at the system level. Existing methods usually use a global or local proximity measure to infer GINs from a single dataset. As the noise contained in a single data set is hardly self-resolved, the results are sometimes not reliable. Also, these proximity measurements cannot handle the co-existence of the various in vivo positive, negative and time-lagged gene interactions. Methods and results: We propose to infer reliable GINs from multiple TCGx datasets using a novel conserved subsequential pattern of gene expression. A subsequential pattern is a maximal subset of genes sharing positive, negative or time-lagged correlations of one expression template on their own subsets of time points. Based on these patterns, a GIN can be built from each of the datasets. It is assumed that reliable gene interactions would be detected repeatedly. We thus use conserved gene pairs from the individual GINs of the multiple TCGx datasets to construct a reliable GIN for a species. We apply our method on six TCGx datasets related to yeast cell cycle, and validate the reliable GINs using protein interaction networks, biopathways and transcription factor-gene regulations. We also compare the reliable GINs with those GINs reconstructed by a global proximity measure Pearson correlation coefficient method from single datasets. It has been demonstrated that our reliable GINs achieve much better prediction performance especially with much higher precision. The functional enrichment analysis also suggests that gene sets in a reliable GIN are more functionally significant. Our method is especially useful to decipher GINs from multiple TCGx datasets related to less studied organisms where little knowledge is available except gene expression data.

Liu, R, Zhao, Y, Wei, S & Yang, Y 2015, 'Indexing of CNN Features for Large Scale Image Search', Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 77, no. 24, pp. 32107-32131.
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The convolutional neural network (CNN) features can give a good descriptionof image content, which usually represent images with unique global vectors.Although they are compact compared to local descriptors, they still cannotefficiently deal with large-scale image retrieval due to the cost of the linearincremental computation and storage. To address this issue, we build a simplebut effective indexing framework based on inverted table, which significantlydecreases both the search time and memory usage. In addition, severalstrategies are fully investigated under an indexing framework to adapt it toCNN features and compensate for quantization errors. First, we use multipleassignment for the query and database images to increase the probability ofrelevant images' co-existing in the same Voronoi cells obtained via theclustering algorithm. Then, we introduce embedding codes to further improveprecision by removing false matches during a search. We demonstrate that byusing hashing schemes to calculate the embedding codes and by changing theranking rule, indexing framework speeds can be greatly improved. Extensiveexperiments conducted on several unsupervised and supervised benchmarks supportthese results and the superiority of the proposed indexing framework. We alsoprovide a fair comparison between the popular CNN features.

Liu, W, Deng, Z-H, Cao, L, Xu, X, Liu, H & Gong, X 2015, 'Mining Top K Spread Sources for a Specific Topic and a Given Node', IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 2472-2483.
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© 2013 IEEE. In social networks, nodes (or users) interested in specific topics are often influenced by others. The influence is usually associated with a set of nodes rather than a single one. An interesting but challenging task for any given topic and node is to find the set of nodes that represents the source or trigger for the topic and thus identify those nodes that have the greatest influence on the given node as the topic spreads. We find that it is an NP-hard problem. This paper proposes an effective framework to deal with this problem. First, the topic propagation is represented as the Bayesian network. We then construct the propagation model by a variant of the voter model. The probability transition matrix (PTM) algorithm is presented to conduct the probability inference with the complexity O{θ3log2θ), while θ is the number nodes in the given graph. To evaluate the PTM algorithm, we conduct extensive experiments on real datasets. The experimental results show that the PTM algorithm is both effective and efficient.

Liu, W, Jia, S, Li, P, Chen, X, Yang, J & Wu, Q 2015, 'An MRF-Based Depth Upsampling: Upsample the Depth Map With Its Own Property', IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol. 22, no. 10, pp. 1708-1712.
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Liu, W, Xue, H, Yu, Z, Wu, Q & Yang, J 2015, 'RGB-D depth-map restoration using smooth depth neighborhood supports', Journal of Electronic Imaging, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 033015-033015.
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Liu, X, Wang, L, Huang, G-B, Zhang, J & Yin, J 2015, 'Multiple kernel extreme learning machine', Neurocomputing, vol. 149, pp. 253-264.
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Liu, Y & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Appropriate Fe (II) Addition Significantly Enhances Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation (Anammox) Activity through Improving the Bacterial Growth Rate', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 8204.
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AbstractThe application of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) process is often limited by the slow growth rate of Anammox bacteria. As the essential substrate element that required for culturing Anammox sludge, Fe (II) is expected to affect Anammox bacterial growth. This work systematically studied the effects of Fe (II) addition on Anammox activity based on the kinetic analysis of specific growth rate using data from batch tests with an enriched Anammox sludge at different dosing levels. Results clearly demonstrated that appropriate Fe (II) dosing (i.e., 0.09 mM) significantly enhanced the specific Anammox growth rate up to 0.172 d−1 compared to 0.118 d−1 at regular Fe (II) level (0.03 mM). The relationship between Fe (II) concentration and specific Anammox growth rate was found to be well described by typical substrate inhibition kinetics, which was integrated into currently well-established Anammox model to describe the enhanced Anammox growth with Fe (II) addition. The validity of the integrated Anammox model was verified using long-term experimental data from three independent Anammox reactors with different Fe (II) dosing levels. This Fe (II)-based approach could be potentially implemented to enhance the process rate for possible mainstream application of Anammox technology, in order for an energy autarchic wastewater treatment.

Liu, Y, Luo, X & Xuan, J 2015, 'Online hot event discovery based on Association Link Network.', Concurr. Comput. Pract. Exp., vol. 27, no. 15, pp. 4001-4014.
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Liu, Y, Ni, B-J, Ganigué, R, Werner, U, Sharma, KR & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Sulfide and methane production in sewer sediments', Water Research, vol. 70, pp. 350-359.
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Recent studies have demonstrated significant sulfide and methane production by sewer biofilms, particularly in rising mains. Sewer sediments in gravity sewers are also biologically active; however, their contribution to biological transformations in sewers is poorly understood at present. In this study, sediments collected from a gravity sewer were cultivated in a laboratory reactor fed with real wastewater for more than one year to obtain intact sediments. Batch test results show significant sulfide production with an average rate of 9.20 ± 0.39 g S/m(2)·d from the sediments, which is significantly higher than the areal rate of sewer biofilms. In contrast, the average methane production rate is 1.56 ± 0.14 g CH4/m(2)·d at 20 °C, which is comparable to the areal rate of sewer biofilms. These results clearly show that the contributions of sewer sediments to sulfide and methane production cannot be ignored when evaluating sewer emissions. Microsensor and pore water measurements of sulfide, sulfate and methane in the sediments, microbial profiling along the depth of the sediments and mathematical modelling reveal that sulfide production takes place near the sediment surface due to the limited penetration of sulfate. In comparison, methane production occurs in a much deeper zone below the surface likely due to the better penetration of soluble organic carbon. Modelling results illustrate the dependency of sulfide and methane productions on the bulk sulfate and soluble organic carbon concentrations can be well described with half-order kinetics.

Liu, Y, Ni, B-J, Sharma, KR & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Methane emission from sewers', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 524-525, pp. 40-51.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Recent studies have shown that sewer systems produce and emit a significant amount of methane. Methanogens produce methane under anaerobic conditions in sewer biofilms and sediments, and the stratification of methanogens and sulfate-reducing bacteria may explain the simultaneous production of methane and sulfide in sewers. No significant methane sinks or methanotrophic activities have been identified in sewers to date. Therefore, most of the methane would be emitted at the interface between sewage and atmosphere in gravity sewers, pumping stations, and inlets of wastewater treatment plants, although oxidation of methane in the aeration basin of a wastewater treatment plant has been reported recently. Online measurements have also revealed highly dynamic temporal and spatial variations in methane production caused by factors such as hydraulic retention time, area-to-volume ratio, temperature, and concentration of organic matter in sewage. Both mechanistic and empirical models have been proposed to predict methane production in sewers. Due to the sensitivity of methanogens to environmental conditions, most of the chemicals effective in controlling sulfide in sewers also suppress or diminish methane production. In this paper, we review the recent studies on methane emission from sewers, including the production mechanisms, quantification, modeling, and mitigation.

Liu, Y, Peng, L, Chen, X & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Mathematical Modeling of Nitrous Oxide Production during Denitrifying Phosphorus Removal Process', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 14, pp. 8595-8601.
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© 2015 American Chemical Society. A denitrifying phosphorus removal process undergoes frequent alternating anaerobic/anoxic conditions to achieve phosphate release and uptake, during which microbial internal storage polymers (e.g., Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)) could be produced and consumed dynamically. The PHA turnovers play important roles in nitrous oxide (N2O) accumulation during the denitrifying phosphorus removal process. In this work, a mathematical model is developed to describe N2O dynamics and the key role of PHA consumption on N2O accumulation during the denitrifying phosphorus removal process for the first time. In this model, the four-step anoxic storage of polyphosphate and four-step anoxic growth on PHA using nitrate, nitrite, nitric oxide (NO), and N2O consecutively by denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms (DPAOs) are taken into account for describing all potential N2O accumulation steps in the denitrifying phosphorus removal process. The developed model is successfully applied to reproduce experimental data on N2O production obtained from four independent denitrifying phosphorus removal study reports with different experimental conditions. The model satisfactorily describes the N2O accumulation, nitrogen reduction, phosphate release and uptake, and PHA dynamics for all systems, suggesting the validity and applicability of the model. The results indicated a substantial role of PHA consumption in N2O accumulation due to the relatively low N2O reduction rate by using PHA during denitrifying phosphorus removal.

Liu, Y, Peng, L, Gao, S-H, Dai, X & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Mathematical modeling of microbial extracellular electron transfer by electrically active microorganisms', Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 747-752.
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A new mathematical model was proposed to describe the extracellular electron transfer process by electrically active microorganisms.

Liu, Y, Peng, L, Guo, J, Chen, X, Yuan, Z & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Evaluating the Role of Microbial Internal Storage Turnover on Nitrous Oxide Accumulation During Denitrification', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1.
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AbstractBiological wastewater treatment processes under a dynamic regime with respect to carbon substrate can result in microbial storage of internal polymers (e.g., polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)) and their subsequent utilizations. These storage turnovers play important roles in nitrous oxide (N2O) accumulation during heterotrophic denitrification in biological wastewater treatment. In this work, a mathematical model is developed to evaluate the key role of PHB storage turnovers on N2O accumulation during denitrification for the first time, aiming to establish the key relationship between N2O accumulation and PHB storage production. The model is successfully calibrated and validated using N2O data from two independent experimental systems with PHB storage turnovers. The model satisfactorily describes nitrogen reductions, PHB storage/utilization and N2O accumulation from both systems. The results reveal a linear relationship between N2O accumulation and PHB production, suggesting a substantial effect of PHB storage on N2O accumulation during denitrification. Application of the model to simulate long-term operations of a denitrifying sequencing batch reactor and a denitrifying continuous system indicates the feeding pattern and sludge retention time would alter PHB turnovers and thus affect N2O accumulation. Increasing PHB utilization could substantially raise N2O accumulation due to the relatively low N2O reduction rate when using PHB as carbon source.

Liu, Y, Sharma, KR, Ni, B-J, Fan, L, Murthy, S, Tyson, GQ & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Effects of nitrate dosing on sulfidogenic and methanogenic activities in sewer sediment', Water Research, vol. 74, pp. 155-165.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Nitrate dosing is widely used to control sulfide and methane formation in sewers. The impact of nitrate on sulfide and methane production by sewer biofilms in rising mains has been elucidated recently. However, little is known about the effect of nitrate on biologically active sewer sediment, which is substantially thicker than rising main biofilms (centimeters vs. hundreds of micrometers, respectively). In this study, we investigated the effect of nitrate addition to sewer sediment cultivated in lab-scale sewer sediment reactors. Batch test results showed that nitrate addition does not suppress sulfide production in sewer sediment, but it reduces sulfide accumulation through anoxic sulfide oxidation in the sediment and hence, also reduces sulfide accumulation in the bulk water. Microsensor measurement of sediment sulfide revealed the presence of sulfide oxidation and sulfide production zones with the interface dynamically regulated by the depth of nitrate penetration. In contrast, the methane production activity of sewer sediment was substantially reduced, likely due to the long-term inhibitory effects of nitrate on methanogens. Pore water measurements showed that methane production activity in the sediment zone with frequent nitrate exposure was completely suppressed, and consequently, the methane production zone re-established deeper in the sediment where nitrate penetration was infrequent.

Liu, Y, Wang, Q, Zhang, Y & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Zero Valent Iron Significantly Enhances Methane Production from Waste Activated Sludge by Improving Biochemical Methane Potential Rather Than Hydrolysis Rate', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 8263.
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AbstractAnaerobic digestion has been widely applied for waste activated sludge (WAS) treatment. However, methane production from anaerobic digestion of WAS is usually limited by the slow hydrolysis rate and/or poor biochemical methane potential of WAS. This work systematically studied the effects of three different types of zero valent iron (i.e., iron powder, clean scrap and rusty scrap) on methane production from WAS in anaerobic digestion, by using both experimental and mathematical approaches. The results demonstrated that both the clean and the rusty iron scrap were more effective than the iron powder for improving methane production from WAS. Model-based analysis showed that ZVI addition significantly enhanced methane production from WAS through improving the biochemical methane potential of WAS rather than its hydrolysis rate. Economic analysis indicated that the ZVI-based technology for enhancing methane production from WAS is economically attractive, particularly considering that iron scrap can be freely acquired from industrial waste. Based on these results, the ZVI-based anaerobic digestion process of this work could be easily integrated with the conventional chemical phosphorus removal process in wastewater treatment plant to form a cost-effective and environment-friendly approach, enabling maximum resource recovery/reuse while achieving enhanced methane production in wastewater treatment system.

Liu, Y, Zhang, Y & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Evaluating Enhanced Sulfate Reduction and Optimized Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) Composition in Anaerobic Reactor by Fe (III) Addition', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 2123-2131.
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© 2015 American Chemical Society. Anaerobic reactors with ferric iron addition have been experimentally demonstrated to be able to simultaneously improve sulfate reduction and organic matter degradation during sulfate-containing wastewater treatment. In this work, a mathematical model is developed to evaluate the impact of ferric iron addition on sulfate reduction and organic carbon removal as well as the volatile fatty acids (VFA) composition in anaerobic reactor. The model is successfully calibrated and validated using independent long-term experimental data sets from the anaerobic reactor with Fe (III) addition under different operational conditions. The model satisfactorily describes the sulfate reduction, organic carbon removal and VFA production. Results show Fe (III) addition induces the microbial reduction of Fe (III) by iron reducing bacteria (IRB), which significantly enhances sulfate reduction by sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) and subsequently changes the VFA composition to acetate-dominating effluent. Simultaneously, the produced Fe (II) from IRB can alleviate the inhibition of undissociated H2S on microorganisms through iron sulfide precipitation, resulting in further improvement of the performance. In addition, the enhancement on reactor performance by Fe (III) is found to be more significantly favored at relatively low organic carbon/SO4^2- ratio (e.g., 1.0) than at high organic carbon/SO4^2- ratio (e.g., 4.5). The Fe (III)-based process of this work can be easily integrated with a commonly used strategy for phosphorus recovery, with the produced sulfide being recovered and then deposited into conventional chemical phosphorus removal sludge (FePO4) to achieve FeS precipitation for phosphorus recovery while the required Fe (III) being acquired from the waste ferric sludge of drinking water treatment process, to enable maximum resource recovery/reuse while achieving high-rate ...

Liu, Y, Zhang, Y & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Zero valent iron simultaneously enhances methane production and sulfate reduction in anaerobic granular sludge reactors', Water Research, vol. 75, pp. 292-300.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Zero valent iron (ZVI) packed anaerobic granular sludge reactors have been developed for improved anaerobic wastewater treatment. In this work, a mathematical model is developed to describe the enhanced methane production and sulfate reduction in anaerobic granular sludge reactors with the addition of ZVI. The model is successfully calibrated and validated using long-term experimental data sets from two independent ZVI-enhanced anaerobic granular sludge reactors with different operational conditions. The model satisfactorily describes the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, sulfate reduction and methane production data from both systems. Results show ZVI directly promotes propionate degradation and methanogenesis to enhance methane production. Simultaneously, ZVI alleviates the inhibition of un-dissociated H2S on acetogens, methanogens and sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) through buffering pH (Fe0+2H+=Fe2++H2) and iron sulfide precipitation, which improve the sulfate reduction capacity, especially under deterioration conditions. In addition, the enhancement of ZVI on methane production and sulfate reduction occurs mainly at relatively low COD/SO42- ratio (e.g., 2-4.5) rather than high COD/SO42- ratio (e.g., 16.7) compared to the reactor without ZVI addition. The model proposed in this work is expected to provide support for further development of a more efficient ZVI-based anaerobic granular system.

Liu, Z, Liang, J & Wu, C 2015, 'Dynamic Green׳s function for a three-dimensional concentrated load in the interior of a poroelastic layered half-space using a modified stiffness matrix method', Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, vol. 60, pp. 51-66.
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Llopis-Albert, C, Merigó, JM & Palacios-Marqués, D 2015, 'Structure Adaptation in Stochastic Inverse Methods for Integrating Information', Water Resources Management, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 95-107.
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Loads, B, Li, J, Wu, C & Hao, G 2015, 'Residual Loading Capacity of Ultra-High Performance Concrete Columns After', International Journal of Protective Structures, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 649-669.
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Columns are essential load carrying structural components and may experience accidental loads such as terrorist bombing attacks during their service life. Damages to columns may trigger structural collapse and it is therefore very important to protect critical load-carrying columns. In recent studies, a novel ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) material was developed and static loading test results revealed its outstanding mechanical strengths and ductility. The present study investigates the blast load-carrying capacities of columns made of UHPC. Concrete columns built with UHPC were blast tested in the field first; then brought back to laboratory and subjected to static load tests to determine their residual load-carrying capacities after experiencing varying levels of blast damage. The results from the field blast tests and laboratory static load tests for residual load-carrying capacities are presented and discussed in this paper. Numerical models for simulating responses and residual strengths of the UHPC columns after blast loadings are also developed in commercial hydro-code LS-DYNA and presented in the paper. Comparisons between the test data and numerical results are made and the accuracy of the numerical model is validated.

Lotfi, F, Phuntsho, S, Majeed, T, Kim, K, Han, DS, Abdel-Wahab, A & Shon, HK 2015, 'Thin film composite hollow fibre forward osmosis membrane module for the desalination of brackish groundwater for fertigation', DESALINATION, vol. 364, pp. 108-118.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The performance of recently developed polyamide thin film composite hollow fibre forward osmosis (HFFO) membrane module was assessed for the desalination of brackish groundwater for fertigation. Four different fertilisers were used as draw solution (DS) with real BGW from the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia. Membrane charge and its electrostatic interactions with ions played a significant role in the performance of the HFFO module using fertiliser as DS. Negatively charged polyamide layer promotes sorption of multivalent cations such as Ca2+ enhancing ion flux and membrane scaling. Inorganic scaling occurred both on active layer and inside the support layer depending on the types of fertiliser DS used resulting in severe flux decline and this study therefore underscores the importance of selecting suitable fertilisers for the fertiliser drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) process. Water flux under active layer DS membrane orientation was about twice as high as the other orientation indicating the need to further optimise the membrane support structure formation. Water flux slightly improved at higher crossflow rates due to enhanced mass transfer on the fibre lumen side. At 45% packing density, HFFO could have three times more membrane area and four times more volumetric flux output for an equivalent 8040 cellulose triacetate flat-sheet FO membrane module.

Lu, D, Xin, T, Yu, N, Ji, Z, Chen, J, Long, G, Baugh, J, Peng, X, Zeng, B & Laflamme, R 2015, 'Tomography is necessary for universal entanglement detection with single-copy observables', Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 116, no. 23, p. 230501.
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Entanglement, one of the central mysteries of quantum mechanics, plays anessential role in numerous applications of quantum information theory. Anatural question of both theoretical and experimental importance is whetheruniversal entanglement detection is possible without full state tomography. Inthis work, we prove a no-go theorem that rules out this possibility for anynon-adaptive schemes that employ single-copy measurements only. We also examinein detail a previously implemented experiment, which claimed to detectentanglement of two-qubit states via adaptive single-copy measurements withoutfull state tomography. By performing the experiment and analyzing the data, wedemonstrate that the information gathered is indeed sufficient to reconstructthe state. These results reveal a fundamental limit for single-copymeasurements in entanglement detection, and provides a general framework tostudy the detection of other interesting properties of quantum states, such asthe positivity of partial transpose and the $k$-symmetric extendibility.

Lu, DDC, Iu, HHC & Pjevalica, V 2015, 'Single-stage near-unity power factor AC/DC converter with both regulated bus and output voltages', International Journal of Electronics Letters, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 77-86.
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© 2014 Taylor & Francis. Recently a single-stage AC/DC converter configuration which combines a boost power factor correction (PFC) circuit with a two-transistor DC/DC converter is presented. The converter achieves high power factor (PF), bus voltage regulation and output voltage regulation simultaneously that are hardly achieved in conventional single-stage power-factor-corrected (S2PFC) converters. The converter is also able to work in stand-by mode to reduce power loss. To improve the converter performance further, this letter introduces a dual current-mode pulse-width modulation controller for this converter configuration to optimise the PF. Experimental results of a 24 VDC/100 W hardware prototype on a boost converter integrated with a two-switch forward converter are presented. The measured PF is above 0.99 at full load. The conversion efficiency is above 87% throughout the entire input AC line voltage range (100–240) Vrms and output load range (0.5–4.5) A.

Lu, J, Behbood, V, Hao, P, Zuo, H, Xue, S & Zhang, G 2015, 'Transfer learning using computational intelligence: A survey', KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS, vol. 80, pp. 14-23.
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Transfer learning aims to provide a framework to utilize previously-acquired knowledge to solve new but similar problems much more quickly and effectively. In contrast to classical machine learning methods, transfer learning methods exploit the knowledge accumulated from data in auxiliary domains to facilitate predictive modeling consisting of different data patterns in the current domain. To improve the performance of existing transfer learning methods and handle the knowledge transfer process in real-world systems, computational intelligence has recently been applied in transfer learning. This paper systematically examines computational intelligence-based transfer learning techniques and clusters related technique developments into four main categories: (a) neural network-based transfer learning; (b) Bayes-based transfer learning; (c) fuzzy transfer learning, and (d) applications of computational intelligence-based transfer learning. By providing state-of-the-art knowledge, this survey will directly support researchers and practice-based professionals to understand the developments in computational intelligence-based transfer learning research and applications.

Lu, J, Wu, D, Mao, M, Wang, W & Zhang, G 2015, 'Recommender system application developments: A survey', DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, vol. 74, pp. 12-32.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. A recommender system aims to provide users with personalized online product or service recommendations to handle the increasing online information overload problem and improve customer relationship management. Various recommender system techniques have been proposed since the mid-1990s, and many sorts of recommender system software have been developed recently for a variety of applications. Researchers and managers recognize that recommender systems offer great opportunities and challenges for business, government, education, and other domains, with more recent successful developments of recommender systems for real-world applications becoming apparent. It is thus vital that a high quality, instructive review of current trends should be conducted, not only of the theoretical research results but more importantly of the practical developments in recommender systems. This paper therefore reviews up-to-date application developments of recommender systems, clusters their applications into eight main categories: e-government, e-business, e-commerce/e-shopping, e-library, e-learning, e-tourism, e-resource services and e-group activities, and summarizes the related recommendation techniques used in each category. It systematically examines the reported recommender systems through four dimensions: recommendation methods (such as CF), recommender systems software (such as BizSeeker), real-world application domains (such as e-business) and application platforms (such as mobile-based platforms). Some significant new topics are identified and listed as new directions. By providing a state-of-the-art knowledge, this survey will directly support researchers and practical professionals in their understanding of developments in recommender system applications.

Lu, J, Zheng, Z, Zhang, G, He, Q & Shi, Z 2015, 'A new solution algorithm for solving rule-sets based bilevel decision problems', CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION-PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 830-854.
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Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Bilevel decision addresses compromises between two interacting decision entities within a given hierarchical complex system under distributed environments. Bilevel programming typically solves bilevel decision problems. However, formulation of objectives and constraints in mathematical functions is required, which are difficult, and sometimes impossible, in real-world situations because of various uncertainties. Our study develops a rule-set based bilevel decision approach, which models a bilevel decision problem by creating, transforming and reducing related rule sets. This study develops a new rule-sets based solution algorithm to obtain an optimal solution from the bilevel decision problem described by rule sets. A case study and a set of experiments illustrate both functions and the effectiveness of the developed algorithm in solving a bilevel decision problem.

Lu, M, Wang, S, Sloan, SW, Indraratna, B & Xie, K 2015, 'Nonlinear radial consolidation of vertical drains under a general time‐variable loading', International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 51-62.
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SUMMARYBy incorporating the nonlinear variation of a soil's compressibility and permeability during the process of consolidation, an analytical solution for the radial consolidation of vertical drains has been developed for a general time‐variable loading. The general solution was verified for the cases of instantaneous loading and ramp loading. Detailed solutions were further derived for two special loading schemes: multistage loading and preloading–unloading–reloading. The nonlinear consolidation behavior of a vertical drain subjected to these two types of loading schemes was then investigated by a parametric study. The results show that the loading rate, the ratio of the compressibility index to the permeability index (Cc/Ck), and the initial stress state have a significant influence on the consolidation rate. A smaller value of Cc/Ck, a larger initial stress, or a fast loading rate always leads to a rapid consolidation rate. During the unloading period, a negative excess pore water pressure may occur, and a slower unloading rate may reduce this negative value. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lu, M, Wang, S, Sloan, SW, Sheng, D & Xie, K 2015, 'Nonlinear consolidation of vertical drains with coupled radial–vertical flow considering well resistance', Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 182-189.
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Lu, S, Mei, T, Wang, J, Zhang, J, Wang, Z & Li, S 2015, 'Exploratory Product Image Search With Circle-to-Search Interaction', IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 1190-1202.
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Lu, X, Nejati, S, Choo, Y, Osuji, CO, Ma, J & Elimelech, M 2015, 'Elements Provide a Clue: Nanoscale Characterization of Thin-Film Composite Polyamide Membranes', ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 7, no. 31, pp. 16917-16922.
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Lu, Z, Roohani-Esfahani, S-I, Li, J & Zreiqat, H 2015, 'Synergistic effect of nanomaterials and BMP-2 signalling in inducing osteogenic differentiation of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells', Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 219-228.
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The lack of complete understanding in the signalling pathways that control the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells hinders their clinical application in the reconstruction of large bone defects and non-union bone fractures. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the interactions of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) and bone biomimetic scaffolds in directing osteogenic differentiation of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs) and the underlying signalling pathways involved. We demonstrated that bioactive glass nanoparticles (nBG) incorporated polycaprolactone (PCL) coating on hydroxyapatite/β-tricalcium phosphate (HA/TCP) scaffold exerted a synergistic effect with 3days of BMP-2 treatment in promoting osteogenic gene expression levels (Runx-2, collagen I, osteopontin and bone sialoprotein) and alkaline phosphatase activity in ASCs. Furthermore, we revealed that the synergistic effect was mediated through a mechanism of activating β1-integrin and induction of Wnt-3a autocrine signalling pathways by nBG incorporated scaffold.

Luo, F, Jiang, C, Du, J, Yuan, J, Ren, Y, Yu, S & Guizani, M 2015, 'A Distributed Gateway Selection Algorithm for UAV Networks', IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 22-33.
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Luo, L, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Manabe, K-I, Sato, H, He, X & Li, P 2015, 'An experimental and numerical study of micro deep drawing of SUS304 circular cups', Manufacturing Review, vol. 2, pp. 27-27.
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© L. Luo et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2015. Micro deep drawing is a promising technology for mass production of complex 3D micro metal products. Significant size effects at a micro scale, however, obstruct application of this technology and block utilisation of traditional finite element method (FEM). Therefore, a micro tensile test system was developed to obtain accurate material properties considering size effects. Subsequently, a Voronoi blank model was developed for the micro scale simulation. Moreover, micro deep drawing experiments were conducted and their results were compared with the simulation results. The simulation results have a good agreement with the experimental data. Furthermore, the wrinkling at the cup mouth increases with the growth of grain sizes on the SUS304 sheets.

Luo, Q & Tong, L 2015, 'Design and testing for shape control of piezoelectric structures using topology optimization', Engineering Structures, vol. 97, pp. 90-104.
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Luo, Q & Tong, L 2015, 'Optimal Designs for Vibrating Structures Using a Moving Isosurface Threshold Method With Experimental Study', Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, vol. 137, no. 6.
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This paper studies optimal designs for vibrating structures using a moving isosurface threshold method (MIST). In the present study, a combination of strain and kinetic energy densities is selected as a response function of natural frequency and then formulations to maximize a specific frequency, frequency separation, and average-mean are derived. An efficient algorithm is developed to find a moving isosurface threshold level for evolving the design boundary and updating the weighting factor. The present algorithm coupled with commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software is used to study optimal designs for vibrating structures. The obtained optimal designs are fabricated and the experimental tests are conducted to validate the optimal topologies.

Luo, Q & Tong, L 2015, 'Structural topology optimization for maximum linear buckling loads by using a moving iso-surface threshold method', Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 71-90.
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Luo, W, Hai, FI, Kang, J, Price, WE, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Yamamoto, K & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Effects of salinity build-up on biomass characteristics and trace organic chemical removal: Implications on the development of high retention membrane bioreactors', Bioresource Technology, vol. 177, pp. 274-281.
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Luo, W, Hai, FI, Kang, J, Price, WE, Nghiem, LD & Elimelech, M 2015, 'The role of forward osmosis and microfiltration in an integrated osmotic-microfiltration membrane bioreactor system', Chemosphere, vol. 136, pp. 125-132.
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Luo, W, Hai, FI, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Water extraction from mixed liquor of an aerobic bioreactor by forward osmosis: Membrane fouling and biomass characteristics assessment', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 145, pp. 56-62.
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Luo, Y, Jiang, Q, Ngo, HH, Nghiem, LD, Hai, FI, Price, WE, Wang, J & Guo, W 2015, 'Evaluation of micropollutant removal and fouling reduction in a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor–membrane bioreactor system', Bioresource Technology, vol. 191, pp. 355-359.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. A hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor (MBBR-MBR) system and a conventional membrane bioreactor (CMBR) were compared in terms of micropollutant removal efficiency and membrane fouling propensity. The results show that the hybrid MBBR-MBR system could effectively remove most of the selected micropollutants. By contrast, the CMBR system showed lower removals of ketoprofen, carbamazepine, primidone, bisphenol A and estriol by 16.2%, 30.1%, 31.9%, 34.5%, and 39.9%, respectively. Mass balance calculations suggest that biological degradation was the primary removal mechanism in the MBBR-MBR system. During operation, the MBBR-MBR system exhibited significantly slower fouling development as compared to the CMBR system, which could be ascribed to the wide disparity in the soluble microbial products (SMP) levels between MBBR-MBR (4.02-6.32. mg/L) and CMBR (21.78 and 33.04. mg/L). It is evident that adding an MBBR process prior to MBR treatment can not only enhance micropollutant elimination but also mitigate membrane fouling.

Ma, HF, Hu, S, Ma, YG, Lai, Y & Esselle, K 2015, 'The Applications of Metamaterials', International Journal of Antennas and Propagation, vol. 2015, pp. 1-2.
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Ma, Q, Luo, X, Xuan, J & Liu, H 2015, 'Bayesian Based Type Discrimination of Web Events.', J. Web Eng., vol. 14, no. 5-6, pp. 525-544.

Ma, X, Liu, D, Zhang, J & Xin, J 2015, 'A fast affine-invariant features for image stitching under large viewpoint changes', Neurocomputing, vol. 151, no. P3, pp. 1430-1438.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Image alignment and stitching is a popular application on many smart phones, but it is time consuming and creates a critical bottle neck in the course of implementation. In this paper, a fast and high-quality image stitching method is proposed. First, a series of simulated images is obtained by simulating the latitude and longitude angles of a raw image; second, FAST detector is used to detect the features of all the simulated images and described by Fast Retina Key-point (FREAK) before all the feature information is projected to the raw image; third, Hamming distance is used as a feature similarity metric and all the features are matched directly instead of using the repetitive projection in Affine-SIFT (ASIFT). RANSAC is then used to achieve the optimal affine-transformations, and lastly, a weighted average bending algorithm is used to smooth the intensities of the overlapping regions. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed image stitching method greatly increases the speed of the image alignment process and produces a satisfactory result.

Maerz, NH, Youssef, AM, Pradhan, B & Bulkhi, A 2015, 'Remediation and mitigation strategies for rock fall hazards along the highways of Fayfa Mountain, Jazan Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 2633-2651.
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Majeed, T, Lotfi, F, Phuntsho, S, Yoon, JK, Kim, K & Shon, HK 2015, 'Performances of PA hollow fiber membrane with the CTA flat sheet membrane for forward osmosis process', DESALINATION AND WATER TREATMENT, vol. 53, no. 7, pp. 1744-1754.
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© 2013, © 2013 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Abstract: Fertilizer drawn forward osmosis desalination has been earlier explored using flat sheet forward osmosis (FSFO) membrane, which highlighted flux and reverse solute flux (RSF) performance. This study evaluated and compared the performances of a newly developed polyamide (PA)-based hollow fiber forward osmosis (HFFO) membrane and cellulose triacetate FSFO membrane. Both membranes were evaluated for pure water permeability, salt rejection rate (1,000 mg/L NaCl) in RO mode. Physical structure and morphology were further examined using scanning electron micrograph (SEM). SEM images revealed that the overall thickness of the HFFO and FSFO membranes was 152 and 91 μm, respectively. Flux and RSF performances of these two membranes were evaluated using nine fertilizer DS as NH4Cl, KNO3, KCl, (NH4)2SO4, Ca(NO3)2, NH4H2PO4, (NH4)2HPO4, NaNO3, and CO(NH2)2 in active layer–feed solution membrane orientation. HFFO membrane clearly showed better performance for water flux with five DS ((NH4)2SO4, NH4H2PO4, KNO3, CO(NH2)2, and NaNO3) as they showed up to 66% increase in flux. Beside thick PA active layer of HFFO membrane, higher water flux outcome for forward osmosis (FO) process further highlighted the significance of the nature of support layer structure, the thickness and surface chemistry of the active layer of the membrane in the FO process. On the other hand, most DS showed lower RSF with HFFO membrane with the exception of Ca(NO3)2. Most of DS having monovalent cation and anions showed significantly lower RSF with HFFO membrane.

Majeed, T, Phuntsho, S, Sahebi, S, Kim, JE, Yoon, JK, Kim, K & Shon, HK 2015, 'Influence of the process parameters on hollow fiber-forward osmosis membrane performances', DESALINATION AND WATER TREATMENT, vol. 54, no. 4-5, pp. 817-828.
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Continued efforts are made in improving the performance of the low-cost forward osmosis (FO) membrane process which utilizes naturally available osmotic pressure of the draw solution (DS) as the driving force. Selection of a suitable DS and development of a better performing membrane remained the main research focus. In this study, the performance of a hollow fiber forward osmosis (HFFO) membrane was evaluated with respect to various operating conditions such as different cross-flow directions, membrane orientation, solution properties, and solution flow rates (Reynolds number). The study observed that operating parameters significantly affect the performance of the FO process. FO comparatively showed better performance at counter-current orientation. NaCl, KCl, and NH4Cl were evaluated as DS carrying common anion. Properties of the anionic part of the DS were found important for flux outcome, whereas reverse solute flux (RSF) was largely influenced by the properties of DS cationic part. FO was operated at different DS and feed solution (FS) flow rates and FO outcome was assessed for varying DS and FS Reynolds number ratio. FO showed better flux outcome as Re ratio for DS and FS decreases and vice versa. Results indicated that by adjusting FO processes conditions, HFFO membrane could achieve significantly lower specific RSF and higher water flux outcome. It was observed that using 2 M NaCl as DS and deionized water as FS, HFFO successfully delivered flux of 62.9 LMH which is significantly high compared to many FO membranes reported in the literature under the active layer-DS membrane orientation mode.

Majeed, T, Sahebi, S, Lotfi, F, Kim, JE, Phuntsho, S, Tijing, LD & Shon, HK 2015, 'Fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis for irrigation of tomatoes', DESALINATION AND WATER TREATMENT, vol. 53, no. 10, pp. 2746-2759.
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Fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis is a low-energy desalination concept particularly developed for the irrigation use of desalinated water. It has an advantage of not requiring regeneration of the draw solution (DS), thus, it can be used directly for the purpose of irrigation without any additional treatment. The current study was aimed to evaluate the real application of forward osmosis (FO) targeting irrigation of tomato crops based from their fertilizer requirements. Fertilizer-DSs were prepared to drive seawater desalination using commercially available fertilizers such as NH4NO3, NH4Cl, KNO3, KCl, NH4H2PO4, and urea. DSs were prepared to represent varying nitrogen:phosphorous:potassium (N:P:K) ratios used in assorted tomato growth stages. The FO performance evaluated in terms of the flux and reverse solute flux (RSF) showed significant variations in outcome. The resultant flux for different DSs was influenced by the particular fertilizer present in DS mixture and its concentration. This flux varied from 2.50 to 12.49 LMH. Comparatively, DS carrying high osmotic pressure components showed high-flux outcome. The fraction Jw/∆π of these fertilizer-DSs varied from 0.062 to 0.19 LMH/bar, which indicates a changing flux outcome against the same osmotic pressure. To select the best performing fertilizer-DS, nitrogen source fertilizers like urea, NH4NO3, and NH4Cl were further evaluated for 10-0-10 NPK value. It was found that NH4Cl-based DS mixtures performed better than urea- and NH4NO3-based DS. The RSF results indicated that all nitrogen- and potassium-based DS exhibited higher N- and K-RSF. However, the DS using NH4H2PO4 delivered extremely low P-RSF of 12.35 g/m2/h. Long-term run tests with seawater quality feed solution resulted in FO producing a final DS enriched in nutrients greater than the tomato plant’s requirement. This implies that the use of dilution or any other technique to reduce excessive nutrients is essential before using the final DS fo...

Makki Alamdari, M, Li, J & Samali, B 2015, 'Damage identification using 2-D discrete wavelet transform on extended operational mode shapes', Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 698-710.
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maleki najafabadi, S, Soffianian, A, Rahdari, V, Amiri, F, Pradhan, B & Tabatabaei, T 2015, 'Geospatial modeling to identify the effects of anthropogenic processes on landscape pattern change and biodiversity', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 1557-1569.
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Mandal, R, Roy, PP, Pal, U & Blumenstein, M 2015, 'Multi-lingual date field extraction for automatic document retrieval by machine', Information Sciences, vol. 314, pp. 277-292.
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© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Robotic intelligence has recently received significant attention in the research community. Application of such artificial intelligence can be used to perform automatic document retrieval and interpretation by a robot through query. So, it is necessary to extract the key information from the document based on the query to produce the desired feedback. For this purpose, in this paper we propose a system for automatic date field extraction from multi-lingual (English, Devnagari and Bangla scripts) handwritten documents. The date is a key piece of information, which can be used in various robotic applications such as date-wise document indexing/retrieval. In order to design the system, first the script of the document is identified, and based on the identified script, word components of each text line are classified into month and non-month classes using word-level feature extraction and classification. Next, non-month words are segmented into individual components and labelled into one of text, digit, punctuation or contraction categories. Subsequently, the date patterns are searched using the labelled components. Both numeric and semi-numeric regular expressions have been used for date part extraction. Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) and profile feature-based approaches are used for classification of month/non-month words. Other date components such as numerals and punctuation marks are recognised using a gradient-based feature and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. The experiments are performed on English, Devnagari and Bangla document datasets and the encouraging results obtained from the system indicate the effectiveness of the proposed system.

Marcias, G, Takayama, K, Pietroni, N, Panozzo, D, Sorkine-Hornung, O, Puppo, E & Cignoni, P 2015, 'Data-driven interactive quadrangulation.', ACM Trans. Graph., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 65:1-65:1.
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We propose an interactive quadrangulation method based on a large collection of patterns that are learned from models manually designed by artists. The patterns are distilled into compact quadrangulation rules and stored in a database. At run-time, the user draws strokes to define patches and desired edge flows, and the system queries the database to extract fitting patterns to tessellate the sketches' interiors. The quadrangulation patterns are general and can be applied to tessellate large regions while controlling the positions of the singularities and the edge flow. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm through a series of live retopology sessions and an informal user study with three professional artists.

Martín, F, Miró, JV & Moreno, L 2015, 'RGB-D DE-based Scan Matching: Exploiting Colour Properties in Registration', Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 71-85.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Colour plays a fundamental role in the perception process of humans. In robotics, the exploitation of this type of information has become increasingly important in many different tasks. The development of new sensors has made it possible to obtain colour information together with depth information about the environment. We have recently developed a scan matching algorithm based on evolutionary concepts (Differential Evolution). The main objective of this work is to include colour properties in the registration process, studying how colour can be used to improve the scan matching process. In particular, we have designed a filter to extract the most significant points of a RGB-D scan based on the Delta E divergence between neighbours. In addition, colour properties have also been included in the fitness function of the scan matching method. Our approach has been tested in a real environment and the most significant conclusion is the improvement of the algorithm performance when measuring the valley of convergence.

Masum, BM, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Palash, SM & Habibullah, M 2015, 'Effect of alcohol–gasoline blends optimization on fuel properties, performance and emissions of a SI engine', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 86, pp. 230-237.
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Matekovits, L, Kikkawa, T, Peter, I & Esselle, KP 2015, 'IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Bio-Compatible Devices and Bio-Electromagnetics for Bio-Medical Applications', IEEE Access, vol. 3, pp. 3119-3121.
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Matekovits, L, Thalakotuna, D, Esselle, KP, Hay, SG & Heimlich, M 2015, 'EQUIVALENT-CIRCUIT MODELS FOR EFFICIENT TRANSMISSION AND DISPERSION ANALYSES OF MULTI-STATE PERIODIC STRUCTURES', Progress In Electromagnetics Research, vol. 153, pp. 93-102.
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Mathieson, L 2015, 'Graph Editing Problems with Extended Regularity Constraints', Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 677, pp. 56-68.
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Graph editing problems offer an interesting perspective on sub- andsupergraph identification problems for a large variety of target properties.They have also attracted significant attention in recent years, particularly inthe area of parameterized complexity as the problems have rich parameterecologies. In this paper we examine generalisations of the notion of editing a graph toobtain a regular subgraph. In particular we extend the notion of regularity toinclude two variants of edge-regularity along with the unifying constraint ofstrong regularity. We present a number of results, with the central observationthat these problems retain the general complexity profile of theirregularity-based inspiration: when the number of edits $k$ and the maximumdegree $r$ are taken together as a combined parameter, the problems aretractable (i.e. in \FPT{}), but are otherwise intractable. We also examine variants of the basic editing to obtain a regular subgraphproblem from the perspective of parameterizing by the treewidth of the inputgraph. In this case the treewidth of the input graph essentially becomes alimiting parameter on the natural $k+r$ parameterization.

Mazzolini, AP & Daniel, SA 2015, 'Improving students' understanding by using on-going education research to refine active learning activities in a first-year electronics course', Nuovo Cimento della Societa Italiana di Fisica C, vol. 38, no. 3.
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Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILDs) have been used across introductory university physics as a successful active learning (AL) strategy to improve students' conceptual understanding. We have developed ILDs for more complex topics in our first-year electronics course. In 2006 we began developing ILDs to improve students' conceptual understanding of Operational Amplifiers (OAs) and negative feedback in amplification circuits. The ILDs were used after traditional lecture instruction to help students consolidate their understanding. We developed a diagnostic test, to be administered to students both before and after the ILDs, as a measure of how effective the ILDs were in improving students' understanding.

McDonald, C & McGloin, D 2015, 'Bubble wrap for optical trapping and cell culturing', Biomedical Optics Express, vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 3757-3757.
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McDonald, C & McGloin, D 2015, 'Low-cost optical manipulation using hanging droplets of PDMS', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 68, pp. 55561-55565.
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A low-cost optical manipulation system is realised by using simple microfabricated PDMS components coupled to a smartphone camera for imaging.

McGloin, D 2015, 'Cellular lasers', Nature Photonics, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 559-560.
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McKenzie, TG, Fu, Q, Wong, EHH, Dunstan, DE & Qiao, GG 2015, 'Visible Light Mediated Controlled Radical Polymerization in the Absence of Exogenous Radical Sources or Catalysts', Macromolecules, vol. 48, no. 12, pp. 3864-3872.
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McKenzie, TG, Wong, EHH, Fu, Q, Sulistio, A, Dunstan, DE & Qiao, GG 2015, 'Controlled Formation of Star Polymer Nanoparticles via Visible Light Photopolymerization', ACS Macro Letters, vol. 4, no. 9, pp. 1012-1016.
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McLaughlan, RG, Almabrok, MH & Vessalas, K 2015, 'Evaluating the effect of mixing method on the performance of mortar containing oil', International Journal of Engineering Science Invention, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 58-64.
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There is a vital need for managing oily materials resulting from the petroleum industry as theirtoxic and persistent nature threatens the environment. In view of oil waste remediation, current treatmenttechnologies are either cost prohibitive and/or the treated products have to be sent to landfill without anypotential end-use. Cement-based stabilisation/solidification of oil contaminated materials is an emergingmethod however there is limited knowledge in terms of the effect of the mixing method on the properties of theresultant cementitious mix. For this purpose, the water wet (WW) and oil wet (OW) protocol was devised to seeif the observed behaviour of the mortar was a function of the mixing method rather than the ingredients. Acement-based mortar incorporating a mineral oil addition of up to 10% of the aggregates mass was used. Theresults indicated that the mixing method has only a small effect on the fresh and hardened properties. Increasedoil content in the cement mortar was found to increase the flow and setting time whereas there was decreasedwet density and air content irrespective of the type of the mixing method used. The compressive strengthdecreased by 75% and 77% for water wet and oil wet respectively compared to the control at 28 days of age.The mixing method has a relatively small impact overall on the hydration process. The calorimetry resultsshowed that both mixing methods followed the same trend whereby the hydration is inhibited due to oilincorporation.

Menon, AK, Cai, C, Wang, W, Wen, T & Chen, F 2015, 'Fine-grained OD estimation with automated zoning and sparsity regularisation', Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, vol. 80, pp. 150-172.
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Merigó, JM, Engemann, KJ & Gil-Lafuente, AM 2015, 'Guest Editorial: Intelligent Systems in Business and Economics', Cybernetics and Systems, vol. 46, no. 3-4, pp. 145-149.
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Merigó, JM, Gil-Lafuente, AM & Yager, RR 2015, 'An overview of fuzzy research with bibliometric indicators', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 27, pp. 420-433.
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Merigó, JM, Guillén, M & Sarabia, JM 2015, 'The Ordered Weighted Average in the Variance and the Covariance', International Journal of Intelligent Systems, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 985-1005.
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Merigó, JM, Mas-Tur, A, Roig-Tierno, N & Ribeiro-Soriano, D 2015, 'A bibliometric overview of the Journal of Business Research between 1973 and 2014', Journal of Business Research, vol. 68, no. 12, pp. 2645-2653.
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The Journal of Business Research is a leading international journal in business research dating back to 1973. This study analyzes all the publications in the journal since its creation by using a bibliometric approach. The objective is to provide a complete overview of the main factors that affect the journal. This analysis includes key issues such as the publication and citation structure of the journal, the most cited articles, and the leading authors, institutions, and countries in the journal. Unsurprisingly, the USA is the leading region in the journal although a considerable dispersion exists, especially during the last years when European and Asian universities are taking a more significant position.

Merigó, JM, Palacios-Marqués, D & del Mar Benavides-Espinosa, M 2015, 'Aggregation methods to calculate the average price', Journal of Business Research, vol. 68, no. 7, pp. 1574-1580.
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Merigó, JM, Palacios-Marqués, D & Ribeiro-Navarrete, B 2015, 'Aggregation systems for sales forecasting', Journal of Business Research, vol. 68, no. 11, pp. 2299-2304.
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Mi, N, Chen, Y, Wang, S, Chen, M, Zhao, M, Yang, G, Ma, M, Su, Q, Luo, S, Shi, J, Xu, J, Guo, Q, Gao, N, Sun, Y, Chen, Z & Yu, L 2015, 'CapZ regulates autophagosomal membrane shaping by promoting actin assembly inside the isolation membrane', Nature Cell Biology, vol. 17, no. 9, pp. 1112-1123.
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© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. A fundamental question regarding autophagosome formation is how the shape of the double-membrane autophagosomal vesicle is generated. Here we show that in mammalian cells assembly of an actin scaffold inside the isolation membrane (the autophagosomal precursor) is essential for autophagosomal membrane shaping. Actin filaments are depolymerized shortly after starvation and actin is assembled into a network within the isolation membrane. When formation of actin puncta is disrupted by an actin polymerization inhibitor or by knocking down the actin-capping protein CapZβ, isolation membranes and omegasomes collapse into mixed-membrane bundles. Formation of actin puncta is PtdIns(3)P dependent, and inhibition of PtdIns(3)P formation by treating cells with the PI(3)K inhibitor 3-MA, or by knocking down Beclin-1, abolishes the formation of actin puncta. Binding of CapZ to PtdIns(3)P, which is enriched in omegasomes, stimulates actin polymerization. Our findings illuminate the mechanism underlying autophagosomal membrane shaping and provide key insights into how autophagosomes are formed.

Milani, D, Khalilpour, R, Zahedi, G & Abbas, A 2015, 'A model-based analysis of CO2 utilization in methanol synthesis plant', Journal of CO2 Utilization, vol. 10, pp. 12-22.
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Mirzahosseini, M, Najjar, YM, Alavi, AH & Gandomi, AH 2015, 'Next-Generation Models for Evaluation of the Flow Number of Asphalt Mixtures', International Journal of Geomechanics, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 04015009-04015009.
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This paper presents the development of next-generation prediction models for the flow number of dense asphalt-aggregate mixtures via an innovative machine learning approach. New nonlinear models were developed to predict the flow number using two robust machine learning techniques, called linear genetic programming (LGP) and artificial neural network (ANN). The flow number of Marshall specimens was formulated in terms of percentages of coarse aggregate, filler, bitumen, air voids, voids in mineral aggregate, and Marshall quotient. An experimental database containing 118 test results for Marshall specimens was used for the development of the models. Validity of the models was verified using parts of laboratory data that were not involved in the calibration process. The statistical measures of coefficient of determination, coefficient of efficiency, root-mean squared error, and mean absolute error were used to evaluate the performance of the models. Further, a multivariable least-squares regression (MLSR) analysis was carried out to benchmark the machine learning-based models against a classical approach. Sensitivity and parametric analyses were conducted and discussed. Given the results, the LGP and ANN models accurately characterize the flow number of asphalt mixtures. The LGP design equation reaches a comparable performance with the ANN model. The proposed models outperform the MLSR and other existing machine learning-based models for the flow number of asphalt mixtures.

Miyazaki, Y, Arakane, Y & Miyanaga, Y 2015, 'Robust Phrase Speech Recognition for Noisy Acoustically Similar Words', Journal of Signal Processing, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 195-207.
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Mofijur, M, Hazrat, MA, Rasul, MG & Mahmudul, HM 2015, 'Comparative Evaluation of Edible and Non-edible Oil Methyl Ester Performance in a Vehicular Engine', Energy Procedia, vol. 75, pp. 37-43.
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Mofijur, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Ashrafur Rahman, SM & Mahmudul, HM 2015, 'Energy scenario and biofuel policies and targets in ASEAN countries', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 46, pp. 51-61.
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Mofijur, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Rasul, MG, Atabani, AE, Hazrat, MA & Mahmudul, HM 2015, 'Effect of Biodiesel-diesel Blending on Physico-chemical Properties of Biodiesel Produced from Moringa Oleifera', Procedia Engineering, vol. 105, pp. 665-669.
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Mofijur, M, Rasul, MG & Hyde, J 2015, 'Recent Developments on Internal Combustion Engine Performance and Emissions Fuelled With Biodiesel-Diesel-Ethanol Blends', Procedia Engineering, vol. 105, pp. 658-664.
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Mofijur, M, Rasul, MG, Hyde, J & Bhuyia, MMK 2015, 'Role of Biofuels on IC Engines Emission Reduction', Energy Procedia, vol. 75, pp. 886-892.
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Moghaddam, DD, Rezaei, M, Pourghasemi, HR, Pourtaghie, ZS & Pradhan, B 2015, 'Groundwater spring potential mapping using bivariate statistical model and GIS in the Taleghan Watershed, Iran', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 913-929.
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Mohammadi, I & Khabbaz, H 2015, 'Shrinkage performance of Crumb Rubber Concrete (CRC) prepared by water-soaking treatment method for rigid pavements', Cement and Concrete Composites, vol. 62, pp. 106-116.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This investigation deals with the shrinkage properties of rubberised concrete pavement. Arrays of concrete samples were prepared with different water-cement ratios and rubber content. The experimental results revealed that the introduction of rubber into concrete mixes results in the control of shrinkage cracks if the optimised content of rubber is selected. Accordingly, the optimised rubber content was determined based on the mix characteristics, mechanical properties and the results of plastic and drying shrinkage tests. The mechanical strength, toughness, bleeding, plastic shrinkage and drying shrinkage tests were conducted in this experimental program. Analysing the results revealed that the most promising performance results were achieved for samples prepared with the rubber contents of 20% and 25% of fine aggregates, and water-cement ratios of 0.45 and 0.40, respectively.

Mojsilović, N & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Probability and structural reliability assessment of mortar joint thickness in load-bearing masonry walls', Structural Safety, vol. 52, no. PB, pp. 209-218.
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Mortar joint thickness has a significant effect on capacity of structural masonry. Data on mortar joint thickness (bed and head joints) were collected from twelve typical storey-high walls at three different building sites and from four walls built in a research laboratory in Switzerland. The data obtained allowed an analysis of the spatial distribution of the joint thickness in each wall and the characterization of the probability distribution of joint thickness. The data has been statistically analysed and the results discussed: the central and dispersion measures were calculated and several probability distributions have been fitted to the sample data and subsequently tested using standard methods of statistical theory. Further, the results obtained from all four building sites have been compared, thus providing quantitative information about the quality of the work on different sites. The presented probabilistic information is then used to define reliability-based limit state specifications where the joint thickness acts as an important random variable. The reliability of the structural masonry subjected to a concentric normal force found that probabilistic modelling of bed joint thickness results in higher reliability indices.

Moore, I & Sheng, D 2015, 'Note of appreciation / Note de reconnaissance', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 52, no. 12, pp. iii-v.
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Moreira, C, Calado, P & Martins, B 2015, 'Learning to rank academic experts in the DBLP dataset', Expert Systems, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 477-493.
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AbstractExpert finding is an information retrieval task that is concerned with the search for the most knowledgeable people with respect to a specific topic, and the search is based on documents that describe people's activities. The task involves taking a user query as input and returning a list of people who are sorted by their level of expertise with respect to the user query. Despite recent interest in the area, the current state‐of‐the‐art techniques lack in principled approaches for optimally combining different sources of evidence. This article proposes two frameworks for combining multiple estimators of expertise. These estimators are derived from textual contents, from graph‐structure of the citation patterns for the community of experts and from profile information about the experts. More specifically, this article explores the use of supervised learning to rank methods, as well as rank aggregation approaches, for combining all of the estimators of expertise. Several supervised learning algorithms, which are representative of the pointwise, pairwise and listwise approaches, were tested, and various state‐of‐the‐art data fusion techniques were also explored for the rank aggregation framework. Experiments that were performed on a dataset of academic publications from the Computer Science domain attest the adequacy of the proposed approaches.

Mosarof, MH, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Ashraful, AM, Rashed, MM, Imdadul, HK & Monirul, IM 2015, 'Implementation of palm biodiesel based on economic aspects, performance, emission, and wear characteristics', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 105, pp. 617-629.
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Mueller, J & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Terrorism, counterterrorism, and the Internet: The American cases', Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 176-190.
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This article assesses the cases that have come to light since 9/11 of Islamist extremist terrorism, whether based in the United States or abroad, in which the United States itself has been, or apparently has been, targeted. Information from them is used to evaluate how the Internet (including various forms of electronic communication) has affected several aspects of the terrorism enterprise in the United States: radicalization, communication, organization, and the gathering of information. In general, it is found that the Internet has not been particularly important. Although it has been facilitating in some respects, it has scarcely ever been necessary. In some respects, the Internet more fully aids efforts to police terrorism – although this is mainly due to the incompetence and amateurishness of would-be terrorists. In other respects, however, the Internet, and the big data compilations it makes possible, greatly increase the costs and complications of the counterterrorism quest.

Muhammad, KSB & Lu, DD-C 2015, 'ZCS Bridgeless Boost PFC Rectifier Using Only Two Active Switches', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 2795-2806.
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© 1982-2012 IEEE. Existing bridgeless boost (BLB) converter with soft switching utilize more than two active switches and extra resonant networks. In this paper, a new zero-current-switching BLB rectifier with high power factor (PF) using only two active switches is proposed. The proposed BLB converter is based on a totem-pole BLB (TPBLB) configuration, which allows the current to flow from high side to low side and vice versa during resonance. Hence, no auxiliary active switch is needed to provide soft switching for all semiconductor devices. The soft switching also reduces the body diode reverse recovery problem, hence allowing the TPBLB to operate in continuous conduction mode. Standard components are used to prove that the proposed converter is working with an acceptable performance compared with other BLB converters with soft switching. In order to achieve smooth input current waveform, high PF, and wide soft-switching operations, a pulsewidth modulation controller is proposed and developed, which combines a conventional PF correction average current mode controller with several logic gates and a phase detector. A detailed analysis of the converter operation and control is presented. Design considerations and parameter values calculations are given. An experimental prototype is developed and tested to verify the converter performance.

Mulya Saputra, Y & Yun, J-H 2015, 'Performance Analysis of Adaptive Radio Activation in Dual-Radio Aggregation System', Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 1901-1907.
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Muniz, KM, Woodside, AG & Sood, S 2015, 'Consumer storytelling of brand archetypal enactments', International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 67-67.
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Mustapha, S, Hu, Y, Nguyen, K, Alamdari, MM, Runcie, P, Dackermann, U, Nguyen, VV, Li, J & Ye, L 2015, 'Pattern recognition based on time series analysis using vibration data for structural health monitoring in civil structures', Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 106-115.
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A statistical pattern recognition technique was developed based on the time series analysis to detect cracking in steel reinforced concrete structures using vibration measurements. The technique has been developed for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The measurements were collected from single and tri-axial accel-erometers, which were integrated into sensor nodes that were developed at the National ICT Australia. The approach is based on two staged Auto-Regressive (AR) and Auto-Regressive with exogenous inputs (ARX) prediction models. The variation between the residual errors obtained from the intact and damaged states were used to define a Damage Index (DI) capable of identifying physical changed which could be due to structural damage. The effect of the severity of damage on the deviation of the AR-ARX model from its in-tact state was also scrutinised. The results of the field trial and the laboratory testing demonstrated the ability of the approach in identifying the presence of cracking and handling large volumes of data in a very efficient manner.

Naderpour, M, Lu, J & Zhang, G 2015, 'A human-system interface risk assessment method based on mental models', SAFETY SCIENCE, vol. 79, pp. 286-297.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. In many safety-critical systems, it is necessary to maintain operators' situation awareness at a high level to ensure the safety of operations. Today, in many such systems, operators have to rely on the principles and design of human-system interfaces (HSIs) to observe and comprehend the overwhelming amount of process data. Thus, poor HSIs may cause serious consequences, such as occupational accidents and diseases including stress, and they have therefore been considered an emerging risk. Despite the importance of this, very few methods have as yet been developed to assess the risk of HSIs. This paper presents a new risk assessment method that relies upon operators' mental models, human reliability analysis (HRA) event tree, and the situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT) to produce a risk profile for the intended HSI. In the proposed method, the operator's understanding (i.e. mental models) about possible abnormal situations in the intended plant is modeled on the basis of the capabilities of Bayesian networks. The situation models are combined with the HRA event tree, which paves the way for the incorporation of operator responses in the assessment method. Probe questions in line with the SAGAT through simulated scenarios in a virtual environment are then administrated to gather operator responses. Finally, the proposed method determines a risk level for the HSI by assigning the operator responses to the developed situational networks. The performance of the proposed method is investigated through a case study at a chemical plant.

Naderpour, M, Lu, J & Zhang, G 2015, 'An abnormal situation modeling method to assist operators in safety-critical systems', RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY, vol. 133, pp. 33-47.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. One of the main causes of accidents in safety-critical systems is human error. In order to reduce human errors in the process of handling abnormal situations that are highly complex and mentally taxing activities, operators need to be supported, from a cognitive perspective, in order to reduce their workload, stress, and the consequent error rate. Of the various cognitive activities, a correct understanding of the situation, i.e. situation awareness (SA), is a crucial factor in improving performance and reducing errors. Despite the importance of SA in decision-making in time- and safety-critical situations, the difficulty of SA modeling and assessment means that very few methods have as yet been developed. This study confronts this challenge, and develops an innovative abnormal situation modeling (ASM) method that exploits the capabilities of risk indicators, Bayesian networks and fuzzy logic systems. The risk indicators are used to identify abnormal situations, Bayesian networks are utilized to model them and a fuzzy logic system is developed to assess them. The ASM method can be used in the development of situation assessment decision support systems that underlie the achievement of SA. The performance of the ASM method is tested through a real case study at a chemical plant.

Naderpour, M, Nazir, S & Lu, J 2015, 'The role of situation awareness in accidents of large-scale technological systems', PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, vol. 97, pp. 13-24.
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© 2015 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. In the last two decades, several serious accidents at large-scale technological systems that have had grave consequences, such as that at Bhopal, have primarily been attributed to human error. However, further investigations have revealed that humans are not the primary cause of these accidents, but have inherited the problems and difficulties of working with complex systems created by engineers. The operators have to comprehend malfunctions in real time, respond quickly, and make rapid decisions to return operational units to normal conditions, but under these circumstances, the mental workload of operators rises sharply, and a mental workload that is too high increases the rate of error. Therefore, cognivitive human features such as situation awareness (SA) - one of the most important prerequisite for decision-making - should be considered and analyzed appropriately. This paper applys the SA Error Taxonomy methodology to analyze the role of SA in three different accidents: (1) A runaway chemical reaction at Institute, West Virginia killing two employees, injuring eight people, and requiring the evacuation of more than 40,000 residents adjacent to the facility, (2) The ignition of a vapor cloud at Bellwood, Illinois that killed one person, injured two employees, and caused significant business interruption, and (3) An explosion at Ontario, California injuring four workers and caused extensive damage to the facility. In addition, the paper presents certain requirements for cognitive operator support system development and operator training under abnormal situations to promote operators' SA in the process industry.

Naidu, G, Jeong, S & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Interaction of humic substances on fouling in membrane distillation for seawater desalination', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 262, pp. 946-957.
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Naik, GR & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Nonnegative Matrix Factorization for the Identification of EMG Finger Movements: Evaluation Using Matrix Analysis', IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 478-485.
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© 2014 IEEE. Surface electromyography (sEMG) is widely used in evaluating the functional status of the hand to assist in hand gesture recognition, prosthetics and rehabilitation applications. The sEMG is a noninvasive, easy to record signal of superficial muscles from the skin surface. Considering the nonstationary characteristics of sEMG, recent feature selection of hand gesture recognition using sEMG signals necessitate designers to use nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF)-based methods. This method exploits both the additive and sparse nature of signals by extracting accurate and reliable measurements of sEMG features using a minimum number of sensors. The testing has been conducted for simple and complex finger flexions using several experiments with artificial neural network classification scheme. It is shown, both by simulation and experimental studies, that the proposed algorithm is able to classify ten finger flexions (five simple and five complex finger flexions) recorded from two sEMG sensors up to 92% (95% for simple and 87% for complex flexions) accuracy. The recognition performances of simple and complex finger flexions are also validated with NMF permutation matrix analysis.

Naik, GR, Baker, KG & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Dependence Independence Measure for Posterior and Anterior EMG Sensors Used in Simple and Complex Finger Flexion Movements: Evaluation Using SDICA', IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 1689-1696.
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© 2015 IEEE. Identification of simple and complex finger flexion movements using surface electromyography (sEMG) and a muscle activation strategy is necessary to control human-computer interfaces such as prosthesis and orthoses. In order to identify these movements, sEMG sensors are placed on both anterior and posterior muscle compartments of the forearm. In general, the accuracy of myoelectric classification depends on several factors, which include number of sensors, features extraction methods, and classification algorithms. Myoelectric classification using a minimum number of sensors and optimal electrode configuration is always a challenging task. Sometimes, using several sensors including high density electrodes will not guarantee high classification accuracy. In this research, we investigated the dependence and independence nature of anterior and posterior muscles during simple and complex finger flexion movements. The outcome of this research shows that posterior parts of the hand muscles are dependent and hence responsible for most of simple finger flexion. On the other hand, this study shows that anterior muscles are responsible for most complex finger flexion. This also indicates that simple finger flexion can be identified using sEMG sensors connected only on anterior muscles (making posterior placement either independent or redundant), and vice versa is true for complex actions which can be easily identified using sEMG sensors on posterior muscles. The result of this study is beneficial for optimal electrode configuration and design of prosthetics and other related devices using a minimum number of sensors.

Nana Duan, Weijie Xu, Shuhong Wang, Jianguo Zhu & Youguang Guo 2015, 'An Improved XFEM With Multiple High-Order Enrichment Functions and Low-Order Meshing Elements for Field Analysis of Electromagnetic Devices With Multiple Nearby Geometrical Interfaces', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 1-4.
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This paper proposes an improved extended finite element method (XFEM) for modeling electromagnetic devices with multiple nearby geometrical interfaces. In regions near these interfaces, the magnetic vector potential approximation is enriched by incorporat-ing multiple derivative discontinuous fields based on the partition of unity method such that the interfaces can be represented inde-pendent of the mesh. The support of a node or an element can be cut by several interfaces. This method results in the high accuracy in the approximation field and the derivative field. Numerical examples applied to the iron core in 1D eddy current field involving level set based parts, error analysis and electromagnetic field computations are provided to demonstrate the utility of the proposed approach.

Nancarrow, P, Mustafa, N, Shahid, A, Varughese, V, Zaffar, U, Ahmed, R, Akther, N, Ahmed, H, AlZubaidy, I, Hasan, S, Elsayed, Y & Sara, Z 2015, 'Technical Evaluation of Ionic Liquid-Extractive Processing of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel', Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, vol. 54, no. 43, pp. 10843-10853.
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Nemati, S 2015, 'ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF IRANIAN LANDFILLS AT SEASIDE OF CASPIAN SEA', International Journal of Geomate, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 1496-1501.
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This paper focuses on methods of solids and contained liquids management and as a case study, and evaluates the proposed landfill design in Langerood, a city in north of Iran close to Caspian Sea. In addition, the methods of waste management and disposal, environmental conditions of transport stations, kinds of waste and other influential managing parameters in this region are analysed and several solutions are presented. The amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) collected in the province of Gulan is about 35,000 tonnes/day. This province involves 4% of the total population of Iran and about 0.9% of the area of Iran, while it produces 1.4% of total MSW of Iran. There is no valuable estimation on the amount of waste generated by industrial units. Approximately 90% of MSW are discharged directly into the rivers. In addition to compostable materials, about 14,000 tonnes paper and cardboard, 9,700 tonnes plastic and 2,500 tonnes glass are annually being entered into the MSW of this province. This paper presents specific and general recommendations to enhance the solid waste management in the study region. © 2015, International Journal of GEOMATE.

Nemati, S, Tahmoorian, F & Mortazavi, M 2015, 'ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF IRANIAN LANDFILLS AT SEASIDE OF CASPIAN SEA', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMATE, vol. 9, no. 18, pp. 1496-1501.

Neshat, A & Pradhan, B 2015, 'An integrated DRASTIC model using frequency ratio and two new hybrid methods for groundwater vulnerability assessment', Natural Hazards, vol. 76, no. 1, pp. 543-563.
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Neshat, A & Pradhan, B 2015, 'Risk assessment of groundwater pollution with a new methodological framework: application of Dempster–Shafer theory and GIS', Natural Hazards, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 1565-1585.
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Neshat, A, Pradhan, B & Javadi, S 2015, 'Risk assessment of groundwater pollution using Monte Carlo approach in an agricultural region: An example from Kerman Plain, Iran', Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, vol. 50, pp. 66-73.
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Neshat, M & Sepidname, G 2015, 'A new hybrid optimization method inspired from swarm intelligence: Fuzzy adaptive swallow swarm optimization algorithm (FASSO)', Egyptian Informatics Journal, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 339-350.
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Neupane, K, Sriravindrarajah, R, Baweja, D & Chalmers, D 2015, 'Effect of curing on the compressive strength development in structural grades of geocement concrete', CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS, vol. 94, pp. 241-248.
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Neville, KA, Walker, JL, Cohn, RJ, Cowell, CT & White, CP 2015, 'The prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency is higher in adult survivors of childhood cancer', Clinical Endocrinology, vol. 82, no. 5, pp. 657-662.
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SummaryBackgroundIt is unclear whether the rate of vitamin D deficiency in paediatric cancer survivors is higher than in the background population, and whether this is of pathological significance.Patients and Methods25OHD was measured in a previously studied group of 208 survivors (n = 108 paediatric 5–17 years, n = 99 adults 18–39 years) and compared with paediatric (5–17 years; n = 132) and adult controls (25–35 years; n = 1393 from the AusDiab cohort) adjusted for age and gender. Relationships with treatment factors (irradiation, bone marrow transplantation and intensity of treatment) along with overweight/obesity (defined by BMI), abdominal adiposity (waist:height ratio >0·5) and hyperinsulinism or abnormal glucose tolerance (HI/aGT) were sought.Results25OHD concentrations were similar in paediatric survivors compared with controls (64·3 ± 21·6 nmol/l vs 66·3 ± 22·8 nmol/l), with no effect of age or gender. Adjusted for gender, rates of 25OHD deficiency (<50 nmol/l) were higher in adult survivors compared with AusDiab controls (42·4% vs 20·8%; P < 0·001). Apart from time since diagnosis (P = 0·03), no relationship with treatment factors was detected. In multivariate regres...

Nghiem, LD, Elters, C, Simon, A, Tatsuya, T & Price, W 2015, 'Coal seam gas produced water treatment by ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and multi-effect distillation: A pilot study', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 146, pp. 94-100.
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Ngo, NT, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Indraratna, B 2015, 'Experimental investigation of coal-fouled ballast stabilised with geogrid', Australian Geomechanics Journal, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 105-112.
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This paper presents the results of an experimental study of coal-fouled ballast reinforced with geogrid, at various degrees of fouling and subjected to cyclic loading. A novel Track Process Simulation Testing Apparatus was used to realistically simulate fouled rail track conditions. The laboratory results demonstrated that coal fines acted as a lubricant, causing ballast aggregates to displace and rotate and, as a result, increase the deformation of ballast. However, coal fines also reduced ballast breakage somewhat because they fill the voids between the ballast particles and coat surface of ballast aggregates which reduce the inter-particle attrition. The placement of a geogrid at the interface between the ballast and sub-ballast layers provides extra internal confinement and interlocks the grains of ballast in its apertures, which also reduces ballast deformation. Based on laboratory results, a threshold value of VCI=40% is proposed to assist practitioners in conducting track maintenance as fouling beyond this threshold significantly reduces the reinforcement effect of geogrid so that fouled ballast experiences premature dilation leading to track instability. A novel equation incorporating the Void Contaminant Index and number of load cycles is also introduced to predict the deformation of fouled ballast, improve the design of rail tracks and help make the correct decisions with regards to track maintenance.

Nguyen, AH, Ngo, HH, Guo, WS, Pham, TQ, Li, FM, Nguyen, TV & Bui, XT 2015, 'Adsorption of phosphate from aqueous solutions and sewage using zirconium loaded okara (ZLO): Fixed-bed column study', SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 523, pp. 40-49.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. This study explores the potential of removing phosphorus from aqueous solutions and sewage by Zr(IV)-loaded okara (ZLO) in the fixed-bed column. Soybean residue (okara) was impregnated with 0.25. M Zr(IV) solution to prepare active binding sites for phosphate. The effect of several factors, including flow rate, bed height, initial phosphorus concentration, pH and adsorbent particle size on the performance of ZLO was examined. The maximum dynamic adsorption capacity of ZLO for phosphorus was estimated to be 16.43. mg/g. Breakthrough curve modeling indicated that Adams-Bohart model and Thomas model fitted the experimental data better than Yoon-Nelson model. After treatment with ZLO packed bed column, the effluent could meet the discharge standard for phosphorus in Australia. Successful desorption and regeneration were achieved with 0.2 NaOH and 0.1 HCl, respectively. The results prove that ZLO can be used as a promising phosphorus adsorbent in the dynamic adsorption system.

Nguyen, DN, Krunz, M & Hanly, SV 2015, 'Distributed Bargaining Mechanisms for MIMO Dynamic Spectrum Access Systems', IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 113-127.
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© 2015 IEEE. Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) and MIMO communications are among the most promising solutions to address the ever increasing wireless traffic demand. An integration that successfully embraces the two is far from trivial due to the dynamics of spectrum opportunities as well as the requirement to jointly optimize both spectrum allocation and spatial/antenna pattern in a distributed fashion. Regardless of spectrum dynamics and heterogeneity, existing literature on channel/power allocation in MIMO DSA systems is only applicable to centralized cases. Our objective here is to design distributed algorithms that jointly allocate opportunistic channels to various links and to simultaneously optimize the MIMO precoding matrices so as to achieve fairness or maximize network throughput. For self-interested DSA links, our distributed algorithm allows links to negotiate channel allocation based on Nash bargaining (NB) and configure the precoding matrices so that links' rate demands are guaranteed while the surplus resources (after meeting minimum rate demands) are fairly allocated. Next, we consider a network throughput maximization formulation (NET-MAX). Both the NB-based and NET-MAX problems are combinatorial with mixed variables. To tackle them, we first transform the original problems by incorporating the concept of timesharing. Using dual decomposition, we develop optimal distributed algorithms for timesharing case, which shed light on how to derive a distributed algorithm for the original problems. Our work fills a gap in the literature of channel allocation where a central controller is not available.

Nguyen, HT, Chen, S-S, Nguyen, NC, Ngo, HH, Guo, W & Li, C-W 2015, 'Exploring an innovative surfactant and phosphate-based draw solution for forward osmosis desalination', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 489, pp. 212-219.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The reverse salt flux phenomenon of forward osmosis affects the quality of the feed water, reduces water flux, and increases the cost for replenishing lost draw solute. In this study, a novel draw solution comprising a mixture of Triton X100 and Na3PO4 for minimizing the reverse salt flux during forward osmosis (FO) was explored. The results indicated that the reverse salt flux caused by coupling 0.5mM Triton X100 to 0.55M Na3PO4 draw solution was only 0.13g/m²h, and the specific reverse salt flux was 0.03g/L using DI water as the feed solution, which are the lowest recorded values among all forward osmosis studies. Hydrophobic attractive interactions between tail groups of Triton X100 with the FO membrane are believed to be the main mechanism for minimizing salt leakage. Results from desalination experiments demonstrated that using 0.55M Na3PO4 coupled with 0.5mM Triton X100 as the draw solution and brackish water and seawater as the feed solution with total dissolved solids of 4090 and 36,800ppm achieved water fluxes of 4.89L/m²h and 1.15L/m²h, respectively. Furthermore, using a two-stage ultrafiltration-nanofiltration system for the draw solution recovery enabled 98% recovery of solutes.

Nguyen, HT, Nguyen, NC, Chen, S-S, Ngo, HH, Guo, W & Li, C-W 2015, 'A new class of draw solutions for minimizing reverse salt flux to improve forward osmosis desalination', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 538, pp. 129-136.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The applications of forward osmosis (FO) have been hindered because of the lack of an optimal draw solution. The reverse salt flux from the draw solution not only reduces the water flux but also increases the cost of draw solute replenishment. Therefore, in this study, Tergitol NP7 and NP9 with a long straight carbon chain and low critical micelle concentration (CMC) were coupled with highly charged ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as an innovative draw solution to minimize reverse salt diffusion in FO for the first time. The results showed that the lowest reverse salt flux of 0.067 GMH was observed when 0.1. M EDTA-2Na coupled with 15. mM NP7 was used as a draw solution and deionized water was used as a feed solution in FO mode (active layer facing with the feed solution). This is due to the hydrophobic interaction between the tails of NP7 and the FO membrane, thus creating layers on the membrane surface and constricting the FO membrane pores. Moreover, 1. M EDTA-2Na coupled with 15. mM NP7 is promising as an optimal draw solution for brackish water and sea water desalination. Average water fluxes of 7.68, 6.78, and 5.95 LMH were achieved when brackish water was used as a feed solution (5, 10, and 20. g/L NaCl), and an average water flux of 3.81 LMH was achieved when sea water was used as a feed solution (35. g/L NaCl). The diluted draw solution was recovered using a nanofiltration (NF-TS80) membrane with a high efficiency of 95% because of the high charge and large size of the draw solution.

Nguyen, LN, Hai, FI, Price, WE, Kang, J, Leusch, FDL, Roddick, F, van de Merwe, JP, Magram, SF & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Degradation of a broad spectrum of trace organic contaminants by an enzymatic membrane reactor: Complementary role of membrane retention and enzymatic degradation', International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, vol. 99, pp. 115-122.
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Nguyen, NC, Chen, S-S, Nguyen, HT, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Hao, CW & Lin, P-H 2015, 'Applicability of a novel osmotic membrane bioreactor using a specific draw solution in wastewater treatment', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 518-519, pp. 586-594.
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Nguyen, TC, Loganathan, P, Nguyen, TV, Pham, TTN, Kandasamy, J, Wu, M, Naidu, R & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Trace elements in road-deposited and waterbed sediments in Kogarah Bay, Sydney: enrichment, sources and fractionation', SOIL RESEARCH, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 401-411.
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© 2015 CSIRO. Trace elements (TEs) in road-deposited sediments (RDS) can be transported by stormwater to neighbouring water bodies to cause aquatic pollution. A study was conducted in Kogarah Bay, Sydney, Australia, to assess the possible sources and potential mobility of TEs in RDS and the contribution to the TE load to the adjacent waterbed sediments in canals and the bay. Of the 11 TEs analysed, pseudo-total concentrations of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), and antimony (Sb) were greatly enriched in RDS over baseline soils (top 10cm depth) collected in bushlands. All TE concentrations in waterbed sediments (top 10cm depth) were similar to those in baseline soils but lower than in RDS. Correlation and principal component analyses revealed that Zn, Cu, Cr and Sb were related to each other in RDS, and probably originated from tyres and brake linings. Vanadium occurred in another component, likely to have originated mainly from road asphalt. Pseudo-total and mobile-fraction (0.1m acetic acid, pH 2.85 extraction) TE concentrations in RDS were: iron>manganese, Zn>Cu, lead>Cr, nickel, V, Sb, cadmium. The potential ecological TE risk was low to medium in RDS but low in baseline soils and waterbed sediments.

Nguyen, TC, Loganathan, P, Nguyen, TV, Vigneswaran, S, Kandasamy, J & Naidu, R 2015, 'Simultaneous adsorption of Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn by an iron-coated Australian zeolite in batch and fixed-bed column studies', CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL, vol. 270, pp. 393-404.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Excessive levels of heavy metals in water are an environmental hazard. An Australian zeolite with (ICZ) and without (Z) iron-coating, was used to remove five heavy metals from aqueous solutions using adsorption in batch and column experiments. The batch study showed that the Langmuir adsorption capacities of heavy metals on Z and ICZ at pH 6.5 and ionic strength 10-3M NaNO3 were in the order Pb>Cu>Cd>Cr, Zn for single metal (5.0-11.2mg/g) and for mixed metals solution (3.7-7.6mg/g). The data for the kinetics of adsorption satisfactory fitted to both the pseudo-first and second order models with fits slightly better for the latter model. Data fitted to a diffusion model revealed that adsorption took place in two or more than two different stages: a fast external surface adsorption, and a gradual adsorption controlled by both film diffusion and intra-particle diffusion. The column adsorption data were fairly well described by Thomas model, with the order of Thomas adsorption capacity following a similar trend as in the batch study. In both batch and column experiments, the adsorption capacities were higher for ICZ than for Z and were generally lower in mixed metals system than in single metals system. Leaching of used ICZ columns with 0.1M HCl, resulted in 64-93% of adsorbed metals being desorbed, and 10% of Fe being dissolved from the ICZ.

Nguyen, VV, Dackermann, U, Li, J, Alamdari, MM, Mustapha, S, Runcie, P & Ye, L 2015, 'Damage identification of a concrete arch beam based on frequency response functions and artificial neural networks', Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 75-84.
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This paper presents a vibration-based structural health monitoring (SHM) technique for the identification of damage in a concrete arch beam replica section of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The proposed technique uses residual frequency response functions (FRFs) combined with principal component analysis (PCA) to form a damage specific feature (DSF) that is used as an input parameter to artificial neural networks (ANNs). Extensive laboratory testing and numerical modelling are undertaken to validate the method. In the proposed technique, FRFs are obtained by the standard modal testing and damage is identified using ANNs that innovatively map the DSF to the severity of damage (length of damage cut). The results of the experimental and numerical validation show that the proposed technique can successfully quantify damage induced to a concrete arch beam simulating a real life structural component of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Ni, B-J & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Recent advances in mathematical modeling of nitrous oxides emissions from wastewater treatment processes', Water Research, vol. 87, pp. 336-346.
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Nitrous oxide (N2O) can be emitted from wastewater treatment contributing to its greenhouse gas footprint significantly. Mathematical modeling of N2O emissions is of great importance toward the understanding and reduction of the environmental impact of wastewater treatment systems. This article reviews the current status of the modeling of N2O emissions from wastewater treatment. The existing mathematical models describing all the known microbial pathways for N2O production are reviewed and discussed. These included N2O production by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) through the hydroxylamine oxidation pathway and the AOB denitrification pathway, N2O production by heterotrophic denitrifiers through the denitrification pathway, and the integration of these pathways in single N2O models. The calibration and validation of these models using lab-scale and full-scale experimental data is also reviewed. We conclude that the mathematical modeling of N2O production, while is still being enhanced supported by new knowledge development, has reached a maturity that facilitates the estimation of site-specific N2O emissions and the development of mitigation strategies for a wastewater treatment plant taking into the specific design and operational conditions of the plant.

Ni, B-J, Batstone, D, Zhao, B-H & Yu, H-Q 2015, 'Microbial Internal Storage Alters the Carbon Transformation in Dynamic Anaerobic Fermentation', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 15, pp. 9159-9167.
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Microbial internal storage processes have been demonstrated to occur and play an important role in activated sludge systems under both aerobic and anoxic conditions when operating under dynamic conditions. High-rate anaerobic reactors are often operated at a high volumetric organic loading and a relatively dynamic profile, with large amounts of fermentable substrates. These dynamic operating conditions and high catabolic energy availability might also facilitate the formation of internal storage polymers by anaerobic microorganisms. However, so far information about storage under anaerobic conditions (e.g., anaerobic fermentation) as well as its consideration in anaerobic process modeling (e.g., IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1, ADM1) is still sparse. In this work, the accumulation of storage polymers during anaerobic fermentation was evaluated by batch experiments using anaerobic methanogenic sludge and based on mass balance analysis of carbon transformation. A new mathematical model was developed to describe microbial storage in anaerobic systems. The model was calibrated and validated by using independent data sets from two different anaerobic systems, with significant storage observed, and effectively simulated in both systems. The inclusion of the new anaerobic storage processes in the developed model allows for more successful simulation of transients due to lower accumulation of volatile fatty acids (correction for the overestimation of volatile fatty acids), which mitigates pH fluctuations. Current models such as the ADM1 cannot effectively simulate these dynamics due to a lack of anaerobic storage mechanisms.

Ni, B-J, Pan, Y, van den Akker, B, Ye, L & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Full-Scale Modeling Explaining Large Spatial Variations of Nitrous Oxide Fluxes in a Step-Feed Plug-Flow Wastewater Treatment Reactor', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 15, pp. 9176-9184.
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Nitrous oxide (N2O) emission data collected from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) show huge variations between plants and within one plant (both spatially and temporarily). Such variations and the relative contributions of various N2O production pathways are not fully understood. This study applied a previously established N2O model incorporating two currently known N2O production pathways by ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) (namely the AOB denitrification and the hydroxylamine pathways) and the N2O production pathway by heterotrophic denitrifiers to describe and provide insights into the large spatial variations of N2O fluxes in a step-feed full-scale activated sludge plant. The model was calibrated and validated by comparing simulation results with 40 days of N2O emission monitoring data as well as other water quality parameters from the plant. The model demonstrated that the relatively high biomass specific nitrogen loading rate in the Second Step of the reactor was responsible for the much higher N2O fluxes from this section. The results further revealed the AOB denitrification pathway decreased and the NH2OH oxidation pathway increased along the path of both Steps due to the increasing dissolved oxygen concentration. The overall N2O emission from this step-feed WWTP would be largely mitigated if 30% of the returned sludge were returned to the Second Step to reduce its biomass nitrogen loading rate.

Ni, B-J, Yu, H-Q & Zeng, RJ 2015, 'Understanding the Microbial Internal Storage Turnover in Wastewater Treatment: Retrospect, Prospect, and Challenge', Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 591-612.
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Biological wastewater treatment processes usually occur under dynamic conditions involving a dynamic regime with respect to carbon substrate, which results in different microbial internal storage processes. These storage processes play important roles in pollutant removal (e.g., chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen and phosphate removal) and resource recovery (e.g., anaerobic digestion for methane production). This review focuses on two different internal storage processes: microbial storage for shock loading of electron donor and another for separate electron donor and acceptor. The review gives the up-to-date status on several essential microbial internal storage issues: their formation and consumption, the kinetics of these processes, the key factors governing microbial storage, their relationship to microbial growth and other important microbial products, their role in nitrous oxides emissions, and their implications in biological wastewater treatment systems. Although previous research in microbial internal storage has undoubtedly improved our level of understanding, it is clear that much remains to be learned about the processes, as many unanswered questions still remain; some of these important future research areas are then outlined. One of the challenges appears to be the competitions for carbon substrate by these microbial internal storage groups when they encounter the same dynamic regimes.

Ni, J, Indraratna, B, Geng, X-Y, Carter, JP & Chen, Y-L 2015, 'Model of Soft Soils under Cyclic Loading', International Journal of Geomechanics, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 04014067-04014067.
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Ni, S-Q, Sun, N, Yang, H, Zhang, J & Ngo, HH 2015, 'Distribution of extracellular polymeric substances in anammox granules and their important roles during anammox granulation', Biochemical Engineering Journal, vol. 101, pp. 126-133.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Extracellular matrix plays a significant role in formation of matrix structure, biogranulation process and improvement of stability of anammox granules. Distributions of cells and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in anammox granules cultured from activated sludge and inactive methanogenic granules were probed. Anammox bacteria secreted more EPS than anaerobic/aerobic granules. The layer of EPS surrounding anammox cells was thicker than other types of granules. In high-enriched granules, the proteins and β-. d-glucopyranose polysaccharides were principally distributed at the core, whereas the cells and α-. d-glucopyranose polysaccharide accumulated in both the interior and outer layers of granules. In low-enriched ones, cells and α-. d-glucopyranose polysaccharides were mainly distributed at the outer rim and the β-. d-glucopyranose polysaccharides were located in both the core and the outer layer, whilst the proteins were distributed throughout the whole structure of granules. EPS distribution indicated that low-enriched granules possessed higher stability than high-enriched ones, in consistent with granule strength test.

Ni, W, Cheng, J, Li, X, Gu, G, Huang, L, Guan, Q, Yuan, D & Wang, B 2015, 'Polymeric cathode materials of electroactive conducting poly(triphenylamine) with optimized structures for potential organic pseudo-capacitors with higher cut-off voltage and energy density', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 9221-9227.
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Electroactive conducting polymers (ECPs) with designed structures via fast surface reactions are able to store/harvest more electrical energy and may serve as potential cathode materials for organic pseudo-capacitors with higher voltages.

Ni, W, Collings, IB, Lipman, J, Wang, X, Tao, M & Abolhasan, M 2015, 'GRAPH THEORY AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO FUTURE NETWORK PLANNING: SOFTWARE-DEFINED ONLINE SMALL CELL MANAGEMENT', IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 52-60.
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© 2015 IEEE. Network planning is facing new and critical challenges due to ad hoc deployment, unbalanced and drastically varying traffic demands, as well as limited backhaul and hardware resources in emerging small cell architectures. We discuss the application of graph theory to address the challenges. A clique-based software-defined online network management approach is proposed that captures traffic imbalance and fluctuation of small cells and optimally plans frequencies, infrastructures, and network structure at any instant. Its applications to three important small cell scenarios of cloud radio, point-to-point microwave backhaul, and interoperator spectrum sharing are demonstrated. Comparison studies show that in each of the scenarios, this new approach is able to significantly outperform conventional static offline network planning schemes in terms of throughput and satisfaction levels of small cells with regard to allocated bandwidths. Specifically, the throughput can be improved by 155 percent for the cloud radio scenario and 110.95 percent for the microwave backhaul scenario. The satisfaction level can be improved by 40 percent for interoperator spectrum sharing.

Ni, W, Collings, IB, Wang, X, Liu, RP, Kajan, A, Hedley, M & Abolhasan, M 2015, 'Radio Alignment for Inductive Charging of Electric Vehicles', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 427-440.
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© 2005-2012 IEEE. To maximize power transfer for inductively charging electric vehicles (EVs), charger and battery coils must be aligned. Wireless sensors can be installed to estimate misalignments; however, existing ranging techniques cannot satisfy the precision requirements of the misalignment estimation. We propose a high-precision wireless ranging and misalignment estimation scheme, where high precision is achieved by iteratively measuring, estimating, and aligning the coils. Another key aspect is to convert the nonconvex misalignment estimation to a more tractable problem with a convex objective. We develop a conditional gradient descent method to solve the problem, which performs gradient descent (or conditional gradient descent on the boundary of the search space) and projects out-of-boundary points back into the space. Employing experimentally validated models, we show that our scheme can achieve 92% of the efficiency of perfectly aligned coils in 90% of operations, and tolerate correlated distance measurement errors. In contrast, the prior art is susceptible to correlation, undergoing a significant efficiency degradation of 18.5%.

Ni, W, Li, X, Hou, Z, Zhang, H, Qiu, W & Wang, W 2015, 'Impact of cataract surgery on vision-related life performances: the usefulness of Real-Life Vision Test for cataract surgery outcomes evaluation', Eye, vol. 29, no. 12, pp. 1545-1554.
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PURPOSE: Real-Life Vision Test (RLVT) is a newly developed performance-based measures of functional vision. This present study is designed to determine whether it could be a meaningful assessment for cataract surgery outcomes evaluation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Age-related cataract patients (56) who scheduled for bilateral cataract surgery and 44 age-matched controls were evaluated by four types of measurements: (1) demographic, medical, cognitive and depressive evaluation, and the reaction time testing; (2) clinical measures (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, stereopsis, and color perception); (3) the 25-item National Eye Institute's Visual Functioning Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ); (4) the RLVT. Spearman's coefficients and multiple regression analysis were conducted to investigate the relationship among RLVT, clinical measures, and self-report assessment of visual function. RESULTS: The results of RLVT, clinical measures, and NEI-VFQ total scores were improved significantly after cataract surgery. There were no differences between control subjects and post-surgery patients with respect to NEI-VFQ-25 total scores, self-rating depression scale scores and three tasks of RLVT. Change of RLVT was significantly associated with the change of clinical measures in the cataract group. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that change of distance, intermediate, and near visual acuity, and binocular contrast sensitivity were significant predictors of improvements of RLVT. CONCLUSIONS: Cataract surgery could improve real-world visual ability effectively for cataract patients. Our study highlights the potential usefulness of RLVT as an adjunct to the current outcomes evaluation system for cataract surgery. The use of RLVT combined with clinical and self-survey methods may be the comprehensive strategy to manifest the impact of cataract surgery on patients' overall vision-related quality of life.

Ni, W, Wang, W, Hong, J, Zhang, P & Liu, C 2015, 'A novel histopathologic finding in the Descemet's membrane of a patient with Peters Anomaly: a case-report and literature review', BMC Ophthalmology, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 139.
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BACKGROUND: Peters anomaly is a rare developmental abnormality of the anterior segment of the eye and is one of the main causes of congenital corneal opacities. Typically, histopathology of Peters anomaly shows immature or absent Descemet's membrane and attenuated endothelial cells in the area of the corneal opacity, in addition to thinning or absence of Bowman's membrane and defects in the posterior stroma. In this report, we present a novel histopathological finding, which has not been previously reported, in the Descemet's membrane of a patient who is clinically diagnosed with Peters anomaly. CASE PRESENTATION: A 7-years old female child with developmentally delayed was born of a normal pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Apparent bilateral corneal opacifications were present at birth. On ophthalmologic examination, the child had a visual acuity of FC/20 cm in the right eye and that of FC/10 cm in the left one. Horizontal nystagmus and congenital cataract were found in both eyes. Slit-lamp examination revealed bilateral central corneal opacities which covered the iris and pupils. High-frequency UBM and AS-OCT both showed a shallow anterior chamber with multiple areas of iridocorneal adhesions and no corneal lenticular touch in each eye. A corneal specialist performed a penetrating keratoplasty with extra-capsular cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation. Histopathologic procedures were conducted on the host corneal button, including Hematoxylin-Eosin stain and Periodic Acid-Schiff stain. All the sections were examined by light microscopy. CONCLUSION: The 'multiple-layer' structure of the Descemet's membrane described in our case has not been reported before as in association with abnormalities of the cornea tissues in Peters anomaly. Such pathological finding need to be reported to enhance further understanding of the special structure of Descemet's membrane as an abnormality during embryogenesis and neural crest cell differentiations.

Nie, M, Yan, C, Dong, W, Liu, M, Zhou, J & Yang, Y 2015, 'Occurrence, distribution and risk assessment of estrogens in surface water, suspended particulate matter, and sediments of the Yangtze Estuary', Chemosphere, vol. 127, pp. 109-116.
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The occurrence and distribution of six selected estrogen compounds were investigated in samples of surface water, suspended particulate matter (SPM), and sediment in the Yangtze Estuary and its coastal areas over four seasons. With the exception of 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), all estrogens were detected at least once in all three phases with bisphenol A (BPA) and estriol (E3) as the dominant estrogens in all phases. EE2 was not detected in any surface water samples. In addition, the highest total estrogen concentrations were found in January in all phases, which could be due to the low flow conditions and temperature during this season. A significant positive correlation was found between total estrogen concentrations and organic carbon (OC) contents, both in the water phase and solid phase (i.e. SPM and sediment), indicating the vital role played by OC. Based on a yeast estrogen screen (YES) bioassay, the higher estrogenic risk was found in the SPM and sediment phase when compared to the water phase. These results were confirmed by a risk assessment which revealed that the Yangtze Estuary was displayed a low to high risk over the seasons for all selected estrogens.

Nimmy, SF & Kamal, MS 2015, 'Next generation sequencing under de novo genome assembly', International Journal of Biomathematics, vol. 08, no. 05, pp. 1530001-1530001.
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The next generation sequencing (NGS) is an important process which assures inexpensive organization of vast size of raw sequence dataset over any traditional sequencing systems or methods. Various aspects of NGS such as template preparation, sequencing imaging and genome alignment and assembly outline the genome sequencing and alignment. Consequently, de Bruijn graph (dBG) is an important mathematical tool that graphically analyzes how the orientations are constructed in groups of nucleotides. Basically, dBG describes the formation of the genome segments in circular iterative fashions. Some pivotal dBG-based de novo algorithms and software packages such as T-IDBA, Oases, IDBA-tran, Euler, Velvet, ABySS, AllPaths, SOAPde novo and SOAPde novo2 are illustrated in this paper. Consequently, overlap layout consensus (OLC) graph-based algorithms also play vital role in NGS assembly. Some important OLC-based algorithms such as MIRA3, CABOG, Newbler, Edena, Mosaik and SHORTY are portrayed in this paper. It has been experimented that greedy graph-based algorithms and software packages are also vital for proper genome dataset assembly. A few algorithms named SSAKE, SHARCGS and VCAKE help to perform proper genome sequencing.

Nisola, GM, Limjuco, LA, Vivas, EL, Lawagon, CP, Park, MJ, Shon, HK, Mittal, N, Nah, IW, Kim, H & Chung, W-J 2015, 'Macroporous flexible polyvinyl alcohol lithium adsorbent foam composite prepared via surfactant blending and cryo-desiccation', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 280, pp. 536-548.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Macroporous polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) foam composites with high loading of uniformly distributed lithium ion sieves (LIS) were successfully fabricated and evaluated for Li⁺ recovery. Surfactant blending combined with cryo-desiccation effectively produced LIS/PVA foams with hierarchical porosity composed of macro- and mesopores. Glutaraldehyde cross-linking rendered the LIS/PVA foams insoluble in water but exhibited high water absorbency and flexibility. Relative to the LIS powder, the foams exhibited minimal reductions in adsorption capacity (qe) and kinetic properties due to: (1) high total porosity and surface area, (2) hydrophilicity of PVA matrix, and (3) high LIS loading, which promoted particle exposure on the foam surface. These features facilitated easy convective flow of water through the matrix and allowed intimate contact between the Li⁺ feed source and the LIS surface. Thus, LIS/PVA foams with high loadings (200-300wt%) exhibited meager reductions in qe (7-13%) and kinetic properties compared to the LIS powder. With LIS loading increase, Li⁺ selectivity of LIS/PVA foams against other cations (i.e. Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) likewise approached that of the LIS powder. While 300wt% LIS/PVA had low mechanical property, lower LIS loadings of 200- and 250wt% were highly durable and exhibited no deterioration in adsorption performance and reusability. Among the prepared LIS/PVA, 250wt% demonstrated the highest adsorption performance and can be repeatedly used for long-term application. The developed LIS/PVA foams are promising Li⁺ adsorbents for secondary Li⁺ sources; application of these foams via a simple 'absorb and squeeze' mechanism could be more practical than the energy-intensive processes like packed bed and membrane systems.

Niyato, D, Hoang, DT, Luong, NC, Wang, P, Kim, DI & Han, Z 2015, 'Smart Data Pricing Models for Internet-of-Things (IoT): A Bundling Strategy Approach', IEEE Network, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 18-25.
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Internet of things (IoT) has emerged as a new paradigm for the futureInternet. In IoT, enormous devices are connected to the Internet and therebybeing a huge data source for numerous applications. In this article, we focuson addressing data management in IoT through using a smart data pricing (SDP)approach. With SDP, data can be managed flexibly and efficiently throughintelligent and adaptive incentive mechanisms. Moreover, it is a major sourceof revenue for providers and partners. We propose a new pricing scheme for IoTservice providers to determine the sensing data buying price and IoT servicesubscription fee offered to sensor owners and service users, respectively.Additionally, we adopt the bundling strategy that allows multiple providers toform a coalition and bid their services as a bundle, attracting more users andachieving higher revenue. Finally, we outline some important open researchissues for SDP and IoT.

Nobbs, M & Blamires, SJ 2015, 'Spatiotemporal distribution and abundance of mangrove ecosystem engineers: burrowing crabs around canopy gaps', Ecosphere, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 1-13.
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The burrowing and feeding activities of fiddler and sesarmid crabs have considerable impacts on ecosystem functioning, accordingly they are considered ecosystem engineers. Identifying the factors influencing spatial and temporal variability in crab distribution and abundance would allow us to make predictions of their engineering impacts over a variety of habitats, which is essential for understanding the functionality of mangrove ecosystems. Here we determined the spatial and temporal distributions and abundances of fiddler crabs and sesarmids around canopy gaps in the mangroves of Darwin Harbour, Australia. We sampled three microhabitats at each canopy gap (site): gap center, gap edge and forest edge. We counted crabs and measured selected environmental variables at thirty sites stratified by height within two creek systems during a single season and at six sites within one creek system over two years. Fiddler crabs were generally more abundant in gap centers with Uca flammula preferring lower sites than Uca elegans or Uca signata, while sesarmids favored low to mid‐height vegetated sites. Canonical Correspondence analyses showed spatial abundances to be partitioned and the main driving factors were canopy density and site height, as well as substrate features (sediment mounds, soil moisture, soil penetrability, soil surface temperature). Temporal abundances were either highly variable (U. signata) or showed significant seasonal variation only at exposed (U. flammula) or higher (U. elegans) sites. The main factors driving temporal partitioning were humidity, wind speed, sunshine, and soil and air temperatures. Our results indicate that the distribution and abundance of crabs in mangroves varies over time and space, and with sampling scale. Substrate and environmental variables had bee...

Noguera, M, Alvarez, C, Merigó, JM & Urbano, D 2015, 'Determinants of female entrepreneurship in Spain: an institutional approach', Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 341-355.
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Noushini, A, Samali, B & Vessalas, K 2015, 'Ductility and Damping Characteristics of PVA-FRC Beam Elements', ADVANCES IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, vol. 18, no. 11, pp. 1763-1787.
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Nur, T, Shim, WG, Loganathan, P, Vigneswaran, S & Kandasamy, J 2015, 'Nitrate removal using Purolite A520E ion exchange resin: batch and fixed-bed column adsorption modelling', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 1311-1320.
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© 2014, Islamic Azad University (IAU). Removing excessive nitrate from water is essential because it causes eutrophication which in turn has a harmful effect on aquatic life, resulting in a reduction in biodiversity and posing a danger to people’s health when the water is used for drinking. In this study, nitrate removal from aqueous solutions was studied using an ion exchange resin (Purolite A520E) in batch and fixed-bed column experiments. Batch adsorption kinetics was very well described by pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and homogeneous surface diffusion models for resin doses 1.5 and 3.0 g/L at a nitrate concentration 20 mg N/L. Column kinetic data satisfactorily fitted to the empirical Thomas model and a numerical model based on advection–dispersion equation for filtration velocities 2.5 and 5.0 m/h at a column height of 12 cm and inlet concentration 20 mg N/L. The experimental and Thomas model predicted breakthrough adsorption capacity ranges for the two filtration rates were 12.0–13.5 and 8.2–9.7 mg N/g, respectively, whereas the maximum adsorption capacity determined using Langmuir adsorption isotherm model in the batch study was 32.2 mg N/g.

Nurhadi, M, Efendi, J, Lee, SL, Mahlia, TMI, Chandren, S, Ho, CS & Nur, H 2015, 'Utilization of low rank coal as oxidation catalyst by controllable removal of its carbonaceous component', Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, vol. 46, pp. 183-190.
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Nuwanpriya, A, Ho, S-W, Zhang, J, Grant, A & Luo, L 2015, 'PAM-SCFDE for Optical Wireless Communications', Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 33, no. 14, pp. 1-1.
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© 1983-2012 IEEE. Multipath dispersion is a serious challenge in visible light communication (VLC) systems as these systems are used for indoor applications where there can be many reflections of the transmitted signal from the ceiling, walls, equipment, etc. These reflected signals cause intersymbol interference in the receiver and can degrade the performance of the system considerably. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) for optical wireless communications was introduced to mitigate multipath dispersion and has been well investigated in the literature. Recently, single-carrier systems with frequency-domain equalization (SCFDE) have been proposed as alternatives to OFDM. In this paper, we present pulse amplitude modulated SCFDE (PAM-SCFDE) to mitigate multipath dispersion in VLC systems.We also compare the proposed PAM-SCFDE with existing OFDM and SCFDE techniques for optical wireless communications in terms of analytical and simulated bit-error-rate (BER) performance, power-spectral efficiency, peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), and overall system complexity. The proposed PAM-SCFDE requires lower per bit signal-to-noise ratio to achieve a BER of 10^-4 or smaller for modulation sizes common in practice, both with and without considering the effects of light-emitting diode transmitters, such as nonlinearity, forward current restriction, and bandwidth limitation. Furthermore, it exhibits better power efficiency for data rates less than 3 bit/s/Hz, lower PAPR and system complexity compared to other systems.

Oberst, S & Lai, JCS 2015, 'A statistical approach to estimate the Lyapunov spectrum in disc brake squeal', Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol. 334, pp. 120-135.
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Oberst, S & Lai, JCS 2015, 'Nonlinear transient and chaotic interactions in disc brake squeal', Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol. 342, pp. 272-289.
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Oberst, S & Lai, JCS 2015, 'Pad-mode-induced instantaneous mode instability for simple models of brake systems', Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 62-63, pp. 490-505.
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Oberst, S & Lai, JCS 2015, 'Squeal noise in simple numerical brake models', JOURNAL OF SOUND AND VIBRATION, vol. 352, pp. 129-141.
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Oberst, S, Nava-Baro, E, Lai, JCS & Evans, TA 2015, 'An Innovative Signal Processing Method to Extract Ants’ Walking Signals', Acoustics Australia, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 87-96.
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Oduro, SD, Metia, S, Duc, H, Hong, G & Ha, QP 2015, 'Multivariate adaptive regression splines models for vehicular emission prediction', Visualization in Engineering, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-12.
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Abstract Background Rate models for predicting vehicular emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO X ) are insensitive to the vehicle modes of operation, such as cruise, acceleration, deceleration and idle, because these models are usually based on the average trip speed. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using other variables such as vehicle speed, acceleration, load, power and ambient temperature to predict (NO X ) emissions to ensure that the emission inventory is accurate and hence the air quality modelling and management plans are designed and implemented appropriately. Methods We propose to use the non-parametric Boosting-Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (B-MARS) algorithm to improve the accuracy of the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) modelling to effectively predict NO X emissions of vehicles in accordance with on-board measurements and the chassis dynamometer testing. The B-MARS methodology is then applied to the NO X emission estimation. Results The model approach provides more reliable results of the estimation and offers better predictions of NO X emissions. Conclusion

Okin, GS, Heras, MM-DL, Saco, PM, Throop, HL, Vivoni, ER, Parsons, AJ, Wainwright, J & Peters, DPC 2015, 'Connectivity in dryland landscapes: shifting concepts of spatial interactions', Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 20-27.
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Dryland ecosystems are often characterized by patchy vegetation and exposed soil. This structure enhances transport of soil resources and seeds through the landscape (primarily by wind and water, but also by animals), thus emphasizing the importance of connectivity – given its relation to the flow of these materials – as a component of dryland ecosystem function. We argue that, as with the fertile‐islands conceptual model before it, the concept of connectivity explains many phenomena observed in drylands. Further, it serves as an organizing principle to understand dryland structure and function at scales from individual plants to entire landscapes. The concept of connectivity also helps to organize thinking about interactions among processes occurring at different scales, such as when processes at one scale are overridden by processes at another. In these cases, we suggest that state change occurs when fine‐scale processes fail to adjust to new external conditions through resource use or redistribution at the finer scale. The connectivity framework has practical implications for land management, especially with respect to decision making concerning the scale and location of agricultural production or habitat restoration in the world's drylands.

Oreshkov, O & Giarmatzi, C 2015, 'Causal and causally separable processes', New J. Phys., vol. 18, p. 093020.
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We develop rigorous notions of causality and causal separability in theprocess framework introduced in [Oreshkov, Costa, Brukner, Nat. Commun. 3, 1092(2012)], which describes correlations between separate local experimentswithout a prior assumption of causal order between them. We consider thegeneral multipartite case and take into account the possibility for dynamicalcausal order, where the order of a set of events can depend on other events inthe past. Starting from a general definition of causality, we derive aniteratively formulated canonical decomposition of multipartite causalprocesses, and show that for a fixed number of settings and outcomes for eachparty, the respective correlations form a polytope whose facets define causalinequalities. In the case of quantum processes, we investigate the link betweencausality and the theory-dependent notion of causal separability, which we hereextend to the multipartite case based on concrete principles. We show thatcausality and causal separability are not equivalent in general by giving anexample of a physically admissible tripartite quantum process that is causalbut not causally separable. We also show that there exist causally separable(and hence causal) quantum processes that become non-causal if extended bysupplying the parties with entangled ancillas. This example of activation ofnon-causality motivates the concepts of extensibly causal and extensiblycausally separable (ECS) processes, for which the respective property remainsinvariant under extension with arbitrary ancillas. We characterize the class oftripartite ECS processes in terms of simple conditions on the form of theprocess matrix, which generalize the form of bipartite causally separableprocess matrices. We show that the processes realizable by classicallycontrolled quantum circuits are ECS and conjecture that the reverse also holds.

O'Toole, D, Kennedy, P, Quinn, J & Murphy, PT 2015, 'Is GDF1 5 beneficial to erythropoiesis in low grade myelodysplastic syndrome?', LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 1914-1915.
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Ozmen, MM, Fu, Q, Kim, J & Qiao, GG 2015, 'A rapid and facile preparation of novel macroporous silicone-based cryogels via photo-induced thiol–ene click chemistry', Chemical Communications, vol. 51, no. 98, pp. 17479-17482.
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We prepared novel cryogelsviafacile thiol–ene reaction at low temperatures, which can selectively remove oils with excellent recyclability.

Palacios-Marqués, D, Merigó, JM & Soto-Acosta, P 2015, 'Online social networks as an enabler of innovation in organizations', Management Decision, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 1906-1920.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of online social networks on firm performance and how this technology can help to create value. The authors approach the problem from the Resource-Based View in order to analyze if online social networks can be considered source of competitive advantage and how it can enhance or complement essential marketing competences. Design/methodology/approach – The data were obtained from a survey based on the Spanish hospitality firms. This sector was chosen because Web 2.0 is becoming an important marketing channel in the tourism industry, and especially in hospitality firms. In addition, Spain is the one of the largest tourist destination in the world and has a strong presence of social media and Web 2.0 use by the population and hospitality enterprises. Between February and June 2012, the questionnaire was sent to all top managers of four-star and five-star Spanish hospitality firms. The authors received 197 questionnaires, but four of them were eliminated due to errors or because they were received too late. Findings – Results show that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between online social networks and innovation capacity and that the relationship between online social networks and firm performance is fully mediated by innovation capacity. In turn, the authors find a statistically significant positive relationship between innovation capacity and performance in the hotel industry.

Palacios-Marqués, D, Soto-Acosta, P & Merigó, JM 2015, 'Analyzing the effects of technological, organizational and competition factors on Web knowledge exchange in SMEs', Telematics and Informatics, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 23-32.
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Palash, SM, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Atabani, AE, Rizwanul Fattah, IM & Sanjid, A 2015, 'Biodiesel production, characterization, diesel engine performance, and emission characteristics of methyl esters from Aphanamixis polystachya oil of Bangladesh', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 91, pp. 149-157.
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Paler, A, Polian, I, Nemoto, K & Devitt, SJ 2015, 'Fault-Tolerant High Level Quantum Circuits: Form, Compilation and Description', Quantum Science and Technology, vol. 2, no. 2, p. 025003.
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Fault-tolerant quantum error correction is a necessity for any quantumarchitecture destined to tackle interesting, large-scale problems. Itstheoretical formalism has been well founded for nearly two decades. However, westill do not have an appropriate compiler to produce a fault-tolerant, errorcorrected description from a higher level quantum circuit for state of the arthardware models. There are many technical hurdles, including dynamic circuitconstructions that occur when constructing fault-tolerant circuits withcommonly used error correcting codes. We introduce a package that converts highlevel quantum circuits consisting of commonly used gates into a form employingall decompositions and ancillary protocols needed for fault-tolerant errorcorrection. We call this form the (I)initialisation, (C)NOT, (M)measurementform (ICM) and consists of an initialisation layer of qubits into one of fourdistinct states, a massive, deterministic array of CNOT operations and a seriesof time ordered $X$- or $Z$-basis measurements. The form allows a more flexbileapproach towards circuit optimisation. At the same time, the package outputs astandard circuit or a canonical geometric description which is a necessity foroperating current state-of-the-art hardware architectures using topologicalquantum codes.

Pan, S, Wu, J, Zhu, X, Long, G & Zhang, C 2015, 'Finding the best not the most: regularized loss minimization subgraph selection for graph classification', PATTERN RECOGNITION, vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 3783-3796.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Classification on structure data, such as graphs, has drawn wide interest in recent years. Due to the lack of explicit features to represent graphs for training classification models, extensive studies have been focused on extracting the most discriminative subgraphs features from the training graph dataset to transfer graphs into vector data. However, such filter-based methods suffer from two major disadvantages: (1) the subgraph feature selection is separated from the model learning process, so the selected most discriminative subgraphs may not best fit the subsequent learning model, resulting in deteriorated classification results; (2) all these methods rely on users to specify the number of subgraph features K, and suboptimally specified K values often result in significantly reduced classification accuracy. In this paper, we propose a new graph classification paradigm which overcomes the above disadvantages by formulating subgraph feature selection as learning a K-dimensional feature space from an implicit and large subgraph space, with the optimal K value being automatically determined. To achieve the goal, we propose a regularized loss minimization-driven (RLMD) feature selection method for graph classification. RLMD integrates subgraph selection and model learning into a unified framework to find discriminative subgraphs with guaranteed minimum loss w.r.t. the objective function. To automatically determine the optimal number of subgraphs K from the exponentially large subgraph space, an effective elastic net and a subgradient method are proposed to derive the stopping criterion, so that K can be automatically obtained once RLMD converges. The proposed RLMD method enjoys gratifying property including proved convergence and applicability to various loss functions. Experimental results on real-life graph datasets demonstrate significant performance gain.

Pan, Y, Ni, B-J, Lu, H, Chandran, K, Richardson, D & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Evaluating two concepts for the modelling of intermediates accumulation during biological denitrification in wastewater treatment', Water Research, vol. 71, pp. 21-31.
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The accumulation of the denitrification intermediates in wastewater treatment systems is highly undesirable, since both nitrite and nitric oxide (NO) are known to be toxic to bacteria, and nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas and an ozone depleting substance. To date, two distinct concepts for the modelling of denitrification have been proposed, which are represented by the Activated Sludge Model for Nitrogen (ASMN) and the Activated Sludge Model with Indirect Coupling of Electrons (ASM-ICE), respectively. The two models are fundamentally different in describing the electron allocation among different steps of denitrification. In this study, the two models were examined and compared in their ability to predict the accumulation of denitrification intermediates reported in four different experimental datasets in literature. The N-oxide accumulation predicted by the ASM-ICE model was in good agreement with values measured in all four cases, while the ASMN model was only able to reproduce one of the four cases. The better performance of the ASM-ICE model is due to that it adopts an 'indirect coupling' modelling concept through electron carriers to link the carbon oxidation and the nitrogen reduction processes, which describes the electron competition well. The ASMN model, on the other hand, is inherently limited by its structural deficiency in assuming that carbon oxidation is always able to meet the electron demand by all denitrification steps, therefore discounting electron competition among these steps. ASM-ICE therefore offers a better tool for predicting and understanding intermediates accumulation in biological denitrification.

Panetta, J, Zhou, Q, Malomo, L, Pietroni, N, Cignoni, P & Zorin, D 2015, 'Elastic textures for additive fabrication.', ACM Trans. Graph., vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 135:1-135:1.
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We introduce elastic textures: a set of parametric, tileable, printable, cubic patterns achieving a broad range of isotropic elastic material properties: the softest pattern is over a thousand times softer than the stiffest, and the Poisson's ratios range from below zero to nearly 0.5. Using a combinatorial search over topologies followed by shape optimization, we explore a wide space of truss-like, symmetric 3D patterns to obtain a small family. This pattern family can be printed without internal support structure on a single-material 3D printer and can be used to fabricate objects with prescribed mechanical behavior. The family can be extended easily to create anisotropic patterns with target orthotropic properties. We demonstrate that our elastic textures are able to achieve a user-supplied varying material property distribution. We also present a material optimization algorithm to choose material properties at each point within an object to best fit a target deformation under a prescribed scenario. We show that, by fabricating these spatially varying materials with elastic textures, the desired behavior is achieved. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

Park, C-H, Tijing, LD, Pant, HR & Kim, CS 2015, 'Effect of laser polishing on the surface roughness and corrosion resistance of Nitinol stents', Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 67-75.
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Park, JH, Szemes, M, Vieira, GC, Melegh, Z, Malik, S, Heesom, KJ, Von Wallwitz-Freitas, L, Greenhough, A, Brown, KW, Zheng, YG, Catchpoole, D, Deery, MJ & Malik, K 2015, 'Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 is a key regulator of the MYCN oncoprotein in neuroblastoma cells', Molecular Oncology, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 617-627.
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Approximately half of poor prognosis neuroblastomas (NBs) are characterized by pathognomonic MYCN gene amplification and MYCN over‐expression. Here we present data showing that short‐interfering RNA mediated depletion of the protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) in cell‐lines representative of NBs with MYCN gene amplification leads to greatly impaired growth and apoptosis. Growth suppression is not apparent in the MYCN‐negative SH‐SY5Y NB cell‐line, or in two immortalized human fibroblast cell‐lines. Immunoblotting of NB cell‐lines shows that high PRMT5 expression is strongly associated with MYCN‐amplification (P < 0.004, Mann–Whitney U‐test) and immunohistochemical analysis of primary NBs reveals that whilst PRMT5 protein is ubiquitously expressed in the cytoplasm of most cells, MYCN‐amplified tumours exhibit pronounced nuclear PRMT5 staining. PRMT5 knockdown in MYCN‐overexpressing cells, including the SHEP‐21N cell‐line with inducible MYCN expression leads to a dramatic decrease in MYCN protein and MYCN‐associated cell‐death in SHEP‐21N cells. Quantitative gene expression analysis and cycloheximide chase experiments suggest that PRMT5 regulates MYCN at a post‐transcriptional level. Reciprocal co‐immunoprecipitation experiments demonstrated that endogenous PRMT5 and MYCN interact in both SK‐N‐BE(2)C and NGP cell lines. By using liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐MS/MS) analysis of immunoprecipitated MYCN protein, we identified several potential sites of arginine dimethylation on the MYCN protein. Together our studies implicate PRMT5 in a novel mode of MYCN post‐translational regulation and suggest PRMT5 plays a major role in NB tumorigenesis. Small‐molecule inhibitors of PRMT5 may therefore represent a novel therapeutic strategy for neuroblastoma and other cancers driven by the MYCN oncogene.

Park, MJ, Phuntsho, S, He, T, Nisola, GM, Tijing, LD, Li, X-M, Chen, G, Chung, W-J & Shon, HK 2015, 'Graphene oxide incorporated polysulfone substrate for the fabrication of flat-sheet thin-film composite forward osmosis membranes', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 493, pp. 496-507.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The preparation and performances of the newly synthesized thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes with graphene oxide (GO)-modified support layer are presented in this study. GO nanosheets were incorporated in the polysulfone (PSf) to obtain PSf/GO composite membrane support layer. Polyamide (PA) active layer was subsequently formed on the PSf/GO by interfacial polymerization to obtain the TFC-FO membranes. Results reveal that at an optimal amount of GO addition (0.25wt%), a PSf/GO composite support layer with favorable structural property measured in terms of thickness, porosity and pore size can be achieved. The optimum incorporation of GO in the PSF support layer not only significantly improved water permeability but also allowed effective PA layer formation, in comparison to that of pure PSf support layer which had much lower water permeability. Thus, a TFC-FO membrane with high water flux (19.77Lm^-2h^-1 against 6.08Lm^-2h^-1 for pure PSf) and reverse flux selectivity (5.75Lg^-1 against 3.36Lg^-1 for pure PSf) was obtained under the active layer facing the feed solution or AL-FS membrane orientation. Besides the improved structural properties (reduced structural parameter, S) of the support layer, enhanced support hydrophilicity also contributed to the improved water permeability of the membrane. Beyond a certain point of GO addition (≥0.5wt%), the poor dispersion of GO in dope solution and significant structure change resulted in lower water permeation and weaker mechanical properties in support as well as FO flux/selectivity of consequent TFC membrane. Overall, this study suggests that GO modification of membrane supports could be a promising technique to improve the performances of TFC-FO membranes.

Park, SH, Park, B, Shon, HK & Kim, S 2015, 'Modeling full-scale osmotic membrane bioreactor systems with high sludge retention and low salt concentration factor for wastewater reclamation', Bioresource Technology, vol. 190, pp. 508-515.
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Parnell, J 2015, 'Welcome from the Conference Chair', Acoustics 2015 Hunter Valley.

Pathirage, U & Indraratna, B 2015, 'Assessment of optimum width and longevity of a permeable reactive barrier installed in an acid sulfate soil terrain', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 52, no. 7, pp. 999-1004.
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Removal of contaminants from groundwater using permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) is a cost-effective and popular engineering solution used throughout the world. Dissolved pollutants in groundwater are removed through geochemical processes that make PRBs effective for different types of contaminants. In achieving this, it is vital to determine the optimum width of the PRB to allow adequate residence time within the barrier and to establish its longevity. For this purpose, both field monitoring and geochemical modelling were conducted for a trial PRB located in the Shoalhaven Floodplain, south of Wollongong in Australia. In this study, the optimum PRB width is evaluated numerically, based on the neutralization effectiveness, i.e., when acidic groundwater travels through the alkaline PRB. A model developed previously has been extended considering the residence time, reaction kinetics, mineral precipitation–induced reduction in porosity and hydraulic conductivity, influent concentrations of the contaminants, and groundwater flow velocity. Longevity of the PRB is determined with respect to groundwater flow rates and amount of reactive material consumed.

Pathirana, SW, Uy, B, Mirza, O & Zhu, X 2015, 'Strengthening of existing composite steel-concrete beams utilising bolted shear connectors and welded studs', Journal of Constructional Steel Research, vol. 114, pp. 417-430.
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This paper considers the flexural behaviour of steel-concrete composite beams retrofitted with two types of bolted connectors and welded stud connectors. Three composite beams, one from each connector type, and four non-composite beams were cast together. Three of the non-composite beams were retrofitted using the three connector types respectively. The connectors were installed through holes cored in the concrete slabs of the beams. The holes were backfilled using structural grout. The beams were then tested under static flexural loading. The load-slip behaviour of these connectors under normal and retrofitted conditions was investigated using push-tests. The flexural behaviour of the retrofitted beams was compared with that of the normal composite beams and non-composite beams. The ultimate loads of the test specimens were compared with the design ultimate loads of these beams calculated using Rigid Plastic Analysis (RPA). The vertical deflection of the beams under serviceable load regimes was also compared. The beam experiments were simulated using Finite Element (FE) models developed with ABAQUS. Material models with damage parameters were specified for the concrete and grout used in the test specimens using the Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) option. The effects of the concrete and grout strength, grout-hole size and shear connection ratio on the flexural behaviour of retrofitted beams were investigated by carrying out a parametric analysis. The results obtained from full-scale beam and push-test experiments and also the analytical results from RPA and FE analyses are presented and discussed in detail in this paper.

Peng, L, Chen, X, Xu, Y, Liu, Y, Gao, S-H & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Biodegradation of pharmaceuticals in membrane aerated biofilm reactor for autotrophic nitrogen removal: A model-based evaluation', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 494, pp. 39-47.
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Wastewater treatment systems are a primary pathway for pharmaceuticals (PhACs) entering the aquatic environment, which require reliable prediction through integrating the specific biodegradation processes into modeling framework. As ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) are known to be able to catalyze the oxidation of a wide array of organic compounds, membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) that remove nitrogen autotrophically through aerobic ammonia oxidation by AOB followed by Anammox may be capable of removing PhACs. In this work, a mathematical model was constructed to assess the PhAC biodegradation and removal potential in MABR under various operational conditions. The cometabolic biodegradation kinetics was used to model PhAC biodegradation by both AOB and heterotrophs. Simulations show that AOB play a major role in PhAC biodegradation with minor contribution from heterotrophs under the influent condition with high-strength ammonium. Both oxygen surface loading and influent surface loading (or hydraulic retention time (HRT)) are found to significantly impact the simultaneous removal of PhACs and total nitrogen (TN) at the optimal biofilm thickness of 750. μm. Approximately 80% of PhACs can be removed in the MABR under operational conditions (oxygen surface loading and HRT) optimal for TN removal with above 75% TN removal achieved. When treating low-strength nitrogenous wastewater, PhAC removal efficiency decreases substantially due to the lower abundance of AOB. The presence of organic matters would substantially increase PhAC removal efficiency mainly via heterotrophs biodegradation pathway, but would suppress the Anammox activity.

Peng, L, Liu, Y, Gao, S-H, Chen, X, Xin, P, Dai, X & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Evaluation on the Nanoscale Zero Valent Iron Based Microbial Denitrification for Nitrate Removal from Groundwater', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1.
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AbstractNanoscale zero valent iron (NZVI) based microbial denitrification has been demonstrated to be a promising technology for nitrate removal from groundwater. In this work, a mathematical model is developed to evaluate the performance of this new technology and to provide insights into the chemical and microbial interactions in the system in terms of nitrate reduction, ammonium accumulation and hydrogen turnover. The developed model integrates NZVI-based abiotic reduction of nitrate, NZVI corrosion for hydrogen production and hydrogen-based microbial denitrification and satisfactorily describes all of the nitrate and ammonium dynamics from two systems with highly different conditions. The high NZVI corrosion rate revealed by the model indicates the high reaction rate of NZVI with water due to their large specific surface area and high surface reactivity, leading to an effective microbial nitrate reduction by utilizing the produced hydrogen. The simulation results further suggest a NZVI dosing strategy (3–6 mmol/L in temperature range of 30–40 °C, 6–10 mmol/L in temperature range of 15–30 °C and 10–14 mmol/L in temperature range of 5–15 °C) during groundwater remediation to make sure a low ammonium yield and a high nitrogen removal efficiency.

Peng, L, Liu, Y, Gao, S-H, Dai, X & Ni, B-J 2015, 'Assessing chromate reduction by dissimilatory iron reducing bacteria using mathematical modeling', Chemosphere, vol. 139, pp. 334-339.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Chromate (Cr (VI)) is a ubiquitous contaminant in aquifers and soils, which can be reduced to its trivalent counterpart (Cr (III)), with the hazard being relieved. The coupling microbial and chemical reduction by dissimilatory iron reducing bacteria (IRB) is a promising approach for the reduction of Cr (VI) to Cr (III). In this work, three mathematical models with different Cr (VI) reduction pathways were proposed and compared based on their ability to predict the performance of an IRB-based stirred-flow reactor treating Cr (VI) contaminated medium and to provide insights into the possible chemical or microbial pathways for Cr (VI) reduction in the system. The Cr (VI) reduction was considered as chemical reaction between Fe (II) and Cr (VI), direct microbial reduction by IRB and combined biotic-abiotic reduction in these three models, respectively. Model evaluation results indicated that the model incorporating both chemical and microbial Cr (VI) reductions could well describe the system performance. In contrast, the other two single-pathway models were not capable of predicting the experimental data, suggesting that both chemical and microbial pathways contributed to Cr (VI) reduction by IRB. The validity of the two-pathway model was further confirmed by an independent experimental data set with different conditions. The results further revealed that the organic carbon availability and Cr (VI) loading rates for the IRB in the system determined the relative contributions of chemical and microbial pathways to overall Cr (VI) reduction.

Peng, L, Ni, B-J, Ye, L & Yuan, Z 2015, 'N2O production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria in an enriched nitrifying sludge linearly depends on inorganic carbon concentration', Water Research, vol. 74, pp. 58-66.
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The effect of inorganic carbon (IC) on nitrous oxide (N2O) production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) was investigated over a concentration range of 0-12 mmol C/L, encompassing typical IC levels in a wastewater treatment reactors. The AOB culture was enriched along with nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to perform complete nitrification. Batch experiments were conducted with continuous carbon dioxide (CO2) stripping or at controlled IC concentrations. The results revealed a linear relationship between N2O production rate (N2OR) and IC concentration (R(2) = 0.97) within the IC range studied, suggesting a substantial effect of IC on N2O production by AOB. Similar results were also obtained with an AOB culture treating anaerobic sludge digestion liquor. The fundamental mechanism responsible for this dependency is unclear; however, in agreement with previous studies, it was observed that the ammonia oxidation rate (AOR) was also influenced by the IC concentration, which could be well described by the Monod kinetics. These resulted in an exponential relationship between N2OR and AOR, as previously observed in experiments where AOR was altered by varying dissolved oxygen and ammonia concentrations. It is therefore possible that IC indirectly affected N2OR by causing a change in AOR. The observation in this study indicates that alkalinity (mostly contributed by IC) could be a significant factor influencing N2O production and should be taken into consideration in estimating and mitigating N2O emissions in wastewater treatment systems.

Peng, L, Ni, B-J, Ye, L & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Selection of mathematical models for N2O production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria under varying dissolved oxygen and nitrite concentrations', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 281, pp. 661-668.
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Mathematical models for nitrous oxide (N2O) production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) based on a single pathway have been proposed to support the design and operation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, the boundary conditions for each of these models have not been established to date. This study tests the predictive ability of two single-pathway models based on the AOB denitrification pathway and the hydroxylamine (NH2OH) oxidation pathway, respectively, to describe the N2O data generated by a N2O model that incorporates both pathways, and provides theoretical guidance on how to use these two single-pathway models as well as the two-pathway model under various conditions. The model based on the AOB denitrification pathway can be used under the condition of a constant dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, applied either at a low DO concentration (<~0.5mg O2/L) with any non-inhibitory nitrite (NO2-) concentrations or at higher DO (≥~0.5mg O2/L) with relatively high NO2- (≥~1.0mg N/L) but non-inhibitory concentrations. The model based on the NH2OH oxidation pathway can be applied under the condition of relatively high DO concentrations (≥~1.5mg O2/L), being either constant or time-varying, with any non-inhibitory NO2- concentrations. Under other conditions, the two-pathway model should be applied.

Peng, L, Ni, B-J, Ye, L & Yuan, Z 2015, 'The combined effect of dissolved oxygen and nitrite on N2O production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria in an enriched nitrifying sludge', Water Research, vol. 73, pp. 29-36.
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Both nitrite [Formula: see text] and dissolved oxygen (DO) play important roles in nitrous oxide (N2O) production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB). However, few studies focused on the combined effect of them on N2O production by AOB as well as the corresponding mechanisms. In this study, N2O production by an enriched nitrifying sludge, consisting of both AOB and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB), was investigated under various [Formula: see text] and DO concentrations. At each investigated DO level, both the biomass specific N2O production rate and the N2O emission factor (the ratio between N2O nitrogen emitted and the ammonium nitrogen converted) increased as [Formula: see text] concentration increased from 3 mg N/L to 50 mg N/L. However, at each investigated [Formula: see text] level, the maximum biomass specific N2O production rate occurred at DO of 0.85 mg O2/L, while the N2O emission factor decreased as DO increased from 0.35 to 3.5 mg O2/L. The analysis of the process data using a mathematical N2O model incorporating both the AOB denitrification and hydroxylamine (NH2OH) oxidation pathways indicated that the contribution of AOB denitrification pathway increased as [Formula: see text] concentration increased, but decreased as DO concentration increased, accompanied by a corresponding change in the contribution of NH2OH oxidation pathway to N2O production. The AOB denitrification pathway was predominant in most cases, with the NH2OH oxidation pathway making a comparable contribution only at high DO level (e.g. 3.5 mg O2/L).

Percival, J, McGregor, C, Percival, N & James, A 2015, 'Enabling the integration of clinical event and physiological data for real-time and retrospective analysis', Information Systems and e-Business Management, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 693-711.
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Peris-Ortiz, M & Merigó Lindahl, JM 2015, 'Preface', Innovation, Technology and Knowledge Management, pp. ix-xv.

Peters, G & Paul, G 2015, 'Maintaining an old icon with a new technology', Journal of Protective Coatings and Linings, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 22-31.
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The latest technological advancements are being used in maintaining the Sydney Harbor bridge. The latest planned maintenance involving abrasive blast-cleaning of the old paint back to bare metal has provided the opportunity for robotic technology to be used to assist maintenance workers engaged in restoration work on the bridge. Rosie and Sandy are two autonomous robots that have been performing some of the more repetitive and straining blast work on the southern side approach spans under the road deck of the bridge.

Pfister, C, Kaniewski, J, Tomamichel, M, Mantri, A, Schmucker, R, McMahon, N, Milburn, G & Wehner, S 2015, 'Understanding nature from experimental observations: a theory independent test for gravitational decoherence', Nature Communications, vol. 7, pp. 13022-13022.
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Quantum mechanics and the theory of gravity are presently not compatible. Aparticular question is whether gravity causes decoherence - an unavoidablesource of noise. Several models for gravitational decoherence have beenproposed, not all of which can be described quantum mechanically. In parallel,several experiments have been proposed to test some of these models, where thedata obtained by such experiments is analyzed assuming quantum mechanics. Sincewe may need to modify quantum mechanics to account for gravity, however, onemay question the validity of using quantum mechanics as a calculational tool todraw conclusions from experiments concerning gravity. Here we propose an experiment to estimate gravitational decoherence whoseconclusions hold even if quantum mechanics would need to be modified. We firstestablish a general information-theoretic notion of decoherence which reducesto the standard measure within quantum mechanics. Second, drawing on ideas fromquantum information, we propose a very general experiment that allows us toobtain a quantitative estimate of decoherence of any physical process for anyphysical theory satisfying only very mild conditions.Finally, we propose aconcrete experiment using optomechanics to estimate gravitational decoherencein any such theory, including quantum mechanics as a special case. Our work raises the interesting question whether other properties of naturecould similarly be established from experimental observations alone - that is,without already having a rather well formed theory of nature like quantummechanics to make sense of experimental data.

Pham, TTN, Mainali, B, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Listowski, A, O'Halloran, K, Miechel, C & Corby, N 2015, 'Effect of heavy metals in recycled water used for household laundry on quality of cloth and washing machine', DESALINATION AND WATER TREATMENT, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 178-190.
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Recycled water for washing clothes saves significant amount of potable water and hence has a great potential for sustainable urban-water management. To date, there has been no official acceptance and very rare practice of use of recycled water for household laundry. This study investigates the effects of critical heavy metals (Pb, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn) on cloth quality and corrosive/scaling of washing machine to evaluate the feasibility of using recycled water for household laundry. The experimental data can be used for future recycled-water-quality guidelines. Five representative cloth materials namely polyester, satin, polycotton, denim and organic cotton were selected for washing in tap water and synthetic recycled water which contained different concentrations of heavy metals. Cloth durability, surface morphology and textile colour of washed cloth samples were measured to investigate the effects of heavy metals on quality of fabric. Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) was used as the indicator for predicting corrosive/scaling effects on washing machine. The results indicated that quality of fabrics after 50 wash cycles was found to have no change by recycled water when concentration of Pb and Mn < 0.5 mg/L, Fe < 1 mg/L, Cu < 5 mg/L and Zn < 30 mg/L. Lower than the above values, the LSI indicated that recycled water would not lead to any negative impact on washing machine.

Phan, HV, Hai, FI, McDonald, JA, Khan, SJ, van de Merwe, JP, Leusch, FDL, Zhang, R, Price, WE, Broeckmann, A & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Impact of hazardous events on the removal of nutrients and trace organic contaminants by an anoxic–aerobic membrane bioreactor receiving real wastewater', Bioresource Technology, vol. 192, pp. 192-201.
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Phan, HV, Hai, FI, McDonald, JA, Khan, SJ, Zhang, R, Price, WE, Broeckmann, A & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Nutrient and trace organic contaminant removal from wastewater of a resort town: Comparison between a pilot and a full scale membrane bioreactor', International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, vol. 102, pp. 40-48.
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Phien, HN, Bengua, JA, Tuan, HD, Corboz, P & Orus, R 2015, 'Infinite projected entangled pair states algorithm improved: Fast full update and gauge fixing', PHYSICAL REVIEW B, vol. 92, no. 3.
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© 2015 American Physical Society. ©2015 American Physical Society. The infinite projected entangled pair states (iPEPS) algorithm [J. Jordan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 250602 (2008)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.101.250602] has become a useful tool in the calculation of ground-state properties of two-dimensional quantum lattice systems in the thermodynamic limit. Despite its many successful implementations, the method has some limitations in its present formulation which hinder its application to some highly entangled systems. The purpose of this paper is to unravel some of these issues, in turn enhancing the stability and efficiency of iPEPS methods. For this, we first introduce the fast full update scheme, where effective environment and iPEPS tensors are both simultaneously updated (or evolved) throughout time. As we shall show, this implies two crucial advantages: (i) dramatic computational savings and (ii) improved overall stability. In addition, we extend the application of the local gauge fixing, successfully implemented for finite-size PEPS [M. Lubasch, Phys. Rev. B 90, 064425 (2014)PRBMDO1098-012110.1103/PhysRevB.90.064425], to the iPEPS algorithm. We see that the gauge fixing not only further improves the stability of the method but also accelerates the convergence of the alternating least-squares sweeping in the (either 'full' or 'fast full') tensor update scheme. The improvement in terms of computational cost and stability of the resulting 'improved' iPEPS algorithm is benchmarked by studying the ground-state properties of the quantum Heisenberg and transverse-field Ising models on an infinite square lattice.

Pietroni, N, Tonelli, D, Puppo, E, Froli, M, Scopigno, R & Cignoni, P 2015, 'Statics Aware Grid Shells.', Comput. Graph. Forum, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 627-641.
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We introduce a framework for the generation of polygonal grid-shell architectural structures, whose topology is designed in order to excel in static performances. We start from the analysis of stress on the input surface and we use the resulting tensor field to induce an anisotropic non-Euclidean metric over it. This metric is derived by studying the relation between the stress tensor over a continuous shell and the optimal shape of polygons in a corresponding grid-shell. Polygonal meshes with uniform density and isotropic cells under this metric exhibit variable density and anisotropy in Euclidean space, thus achieving a better distribution of the strain energy over their elements. Meshes are further optimized taking into account symmetry and regularity of cells to improve aesthetics. We experiment with quad meshes and hex-dominant meshes, demonstrating that our grid-shells achieve better static performances than state-of-the-art grid-shells.

Piyathilaka, L & Kodagoda, S 2015, 'Learning Hidden Human Context in 3D Office Scenes by Mapping Affordances Through Virtual Humans.', Unmanned Syst., vol. 3, no. 04, pp. 299-310.
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Ability to learn human context in an environment could be one of the most desired fundamental abilities that a robot should have when sharing a workspace with human co-workers. Arguably, a robot with appropriate human context awareness could lead to a better human–robot interaction. In this paper, we address the problem of learning human context in an office environment by only using 3D point cloud data. Our approach is based on the concept of affordance-map, which involves mapping latent human actions in a given environment by looking at geometric features of the environment. This enables us to learn the human context in the environment without observing real human behaviors which themselves are a nontrivial task to detect. Once learned, affordance-map allows us to assign an affordance cost value for each grid location of the map. These cost maps are later used to develop an active object search strategy and to develop a context-aware global path planning strategy.

Polwaththe-Gallage, H-N, Saha, SC, Sauret, E, Flower, R & Gu, Y 2015, 'Numerical Investigation of Motion and Deformation of a Single Red Blood Cell in a Stenosed Capillary', International Journal of Computational Methods, vol. 12, no. 04, pp. 1540003-1540003.
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It is generally assumed that influence of the red blood cells (RBCs) is predominant in blood rheology. The healthy RBCs are highly deformable and can thus easily squeeze through the smallest capillaries having internal diameter less than their characteristic size. On the other hand, RBCs infected by malaria or other diseases are stiffer and so less deformable. Thus it is harder for them to flow through the smallest capillaries. Therefore, it is very important to critically and realistically investigate the mechanical behavior of both healthy and infected RBCs which is a current gap in knowledge. The motion and the steady state deformed shape of the RBCs depend on many factors, such as the geometrical parameters of the capillary through which blood flows, the membrane bending stiffness and the mean velocity of the blood flow. In this study, motion and deformation of a single two-dimensional RBC in a stenosed capillary is explored by using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. An elastic spring network is used to model the RBC membrane, while the RBC's inside fluid and outside fluid are treated as SPH particles. The effect of RBC's membrane stiffness (k b ), inlet pressure (P) and geometrical parameters of the capillary on the motion and deformation of the RBC is studied. The deformation index, RBC's mean velocity and the cell membrane energy are analyzed when the cell passes through the stenosed capillary. The simulation results demonstrate that the k b , P and the geometrical parameters of the capillary have a significant impact on the RBCs' motion and deformation in the stenosed section.

Porter, SH, Huang, Z, Cheng, Z, Avdeev, M, Chen, Z, Dou, S & Woodward, PM 2015, 'Structural and magnetic properties of RTiNO2 (R=Ce, Pr, Nd) perovskite nitride oxides', Journal of Solid State Chemistry, vol. 226, pp. 279-285.
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Porter, SH, Huang, Z, Dou, S, Brown-Xu, S, Golam Sarwar, ATM, Myers, RC & Woodward, PM 2015, 'Electronic Structure and Photocatalytic Water Oxidation Activity of RTiNO₂ (R = Ce, Pr, and Nd) Perovskite Nitride Oxides', Chemistry of Materials, vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 2414-2420.
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Poulos, RC, Thoms, JAI, Shah, A, Beck, D, Pimanda, JE & Wong, JWH 2015, 'Systematic Screening of Promoter Regions Pinpoints Functional Cis-Regulatory Mutations in a Cutaneous Melanoma Genome', Molecular Cancer Research, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 1218-1226.
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Abstract With the recent discovery of recurrent mutations in the TERT promoter in melanoma, identification of other somatic causal promoter mutations is of considerable interest. Yet, the impact of sequence variation on the regulatory potential of gene promoters has not been systematically evaluated. This study assesses the impact of promoter mutations on promoter activity in the whole-genome sequenced malignant melanoma cell line COLO-829. Combining somatic mutation calls from COLO-829 with genome-wide chromatin accessibility and histone modification data revealed mutations within promoter elements. Interestingly, a high number of potential promoter mutations (n = 23) were found, a result mirrored in subsequent analysis of TCGA whole-melanoma genomes. The impact of wild-type and mutant promoter sequences were evaluated by subcloning into luciferase reporter vectors and testing their transcriptional activity in COLO-829 cells. Of the 23 promoter regions tested, four mutations significantly altered reporter activity relative to wild-type sequences. These data were then subjected to multiple computational algorithms that score the cis-regulatory altering potential of mutations. These analyses identified one mutation, located within the promoter region of NDUFB9, which encodes the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1 beta subcomplex 9, to be recurrent in 4.4% (19 of 432) of TCGA whole-melanoma exomes. The mutation is predicted to disrupt a highly conserved SP1/KLF transcription factor binding motif and its frequent co-occurrence with mutations in the coding sequence of NF1 supports a pathologic role for this mutation in melanoma. Taken together, these data show the relatively high prevalence of promoter mutations in the COLO-829 melanoma genome, and indicate that a proportion of these significantly alter the regulatory potential of gene promoters. Implications: Genom...

Pradhan, B 2015, 'Geoinformation techniques in natural hazard modeling: Preface', Geoscience Frontiers, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 791-792.
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Pradhan, B 2015, 'Geoinformation techniques in natural hazard modeling: Preface', Geoscience, vol. 6, p. 001.

Pradhan, B, Sandeep, K, Mansor, S, Ramli, AR & Sharif, ARBM 2015, 'GIS terrain data compression using lifting scheme a new dimension'.

Pradhan, M, Vigneswaran, S & Kandasamy, J 2015, 'Assessment of fouling behaviour in submerged microfiltration system coupled with flocculation', Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 21, pp. 254-260.
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Pramanik, BK, Roddick, FA, Fan, L, Jeong, S & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Assessment of biological activated carbon treatment to control membrane fouling in reverse osmosis of secondary effluent for reuse in irrigation', Desalination, vol. 364, pp. 90-95.
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Prasad, M, Li, DL, Lin, CT, Prakash, S, Singh, J & Joshi, S 2015, 'Designing Mamdani-Type Fuzzy Reasoning for Visualizing Prediction Problems Based on Collaborative Fuzzy Clustering', IAENG International Journal of Computer Science, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 404-411.
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In this paper a collaborative fuzzy c-means (CFCM) is used to generate fuzzy rules for fuzzy inference systems to evaluate the time series model. CFCM helps system to integrate two or more different datasets having similar features which are collected at the different environment with the different time period and it integrates these datasets together in order to visualize some common patterns among the datasets. In order to do any mode of integration between datasets, there is a necessity to define the common features between datasets by using some kind of collaborative process and also need to preserve the privacy and security at higher levels. This collaboration process gives a common structure between datasets which helps to define an appropriate number of rules for structural learning and also improve the accuracy of the system modeling.

Prasad, M, Lin, YY, Lin, CT, Er, MJ & Prasad, OK 2015, 'A new data-driven neural fuzzy system with collaborative fuzzy clustering mechanism', Neurocomputing, vol. 167, pp. 558-568.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. In this paper, a novel fuzzy rule transfer mechanism for self-constructing neural fuzzy inference networks is being proposed. The features of the proposed method, termed data-driven neural fuzzy system with collaborative fuzzy clustering mechanism (DDNFS-CFCM) are; (1) Fuzzy rules are generated facilely by fuzzy c-means (FCM) and then adapted by the preprocessed collaborative fuzzy clustering (PCFC) technique, and (2) Structure and parameter learning are performed simultaneously without selecting the initial parameters. The DDNFS-CFCM can be applied to deal with big data problems by the virtue of the PCFC technique, which is capable of dealing with immense datasets while preserving the privacy and security of datasets. Initially, the entire dataset is organized into two individual datasets for the PCFC procedure, where each of the dataset is clustered separately. The knowledge of prototype variables (cluster centers) and the matrix of just one halve of the dataset through collaborative technique are deployed. The DDNFS-CFCM is able to achieve consistency in the presence of collective knowledge of the PCFC and boost the system modeling process by parameter learning ability of the self-constructing neural fuzzy inference networks (SONFIN). The proposed method outperforms other existing methods for time series prediction problems.

Pratama, M, Anavatti, SG & Lu, J 2015, 'Recurrent Classifier Based on an Incremental Metacognitive-Based Scaffolding Algorithm', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 2048-2066.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper outlines our proposal for a novel metacognitive-based scaffolding classifier, namely recurrent classifier (rClass). rClass is capable of emulating three fundamental pillars of human learning in terms of what-to-learn, how-to-learn, and when-to-learn. The cognitive constituent of rClass is underpinned by a recurrent network based on a generalized version of the Takagi-Sugeno-Kang fuzzy system possessing a local feedback of the rule layer. The main basis of the what-to-learn component relies on the new active learning-based conflict measure. Meanwhile, the when-to-learn learning scenario makes use of the standard sample reserved strategy. The how-to-learn module actualizes the Schema and Scaffolding concepts of cognitive psychology. All learning principles are committed in the single-pass local learning modes and create a plug-and-play learning foundation minimizing additional pre- or post-training phases. The efficacy of rClass has been scrutinized by means of rigorous empirical studies, statistical tests, and benchmarks with state-of-the-art classifiers, which demonstrate the rClass potency in producing reliable classification rates, while retaining low complexity in terms of the rule base burden, computational load, and annotation effort.

Praveena, SM, Pradhan, B & Ismail, SNS 2015, 'Spatial Assessment of Heavy Metals in Surface Soil from Klang District (Malaysia): An Example from a Tropical Environment', Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, vol. 21, no. 7, pp. 1980-2003.
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Qadir, A, Sharma, M, Parvareh, F, Khalilpour, R & Abbas, A 2015, 'Flexible dynamic operation of solar-integrated power plant with solvent based post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) process', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 97, pp. 7-19.
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Qi Mao, Tsang, IW, Shenghua Gao & Li Wang 2015, 'Generalized Multiple Kernel Learning With Data-Dependent Priors', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 1134-1148.
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© 2012 IEEE. Multiple kernel learning (MKL) and classifier ensemble are two mainstream methods for solving learning problems in which some sets of features/views are more informative than others, or the features/views within a given set are inconsistent. In this paper, we first present a novel probabilistic interpretation of MKL such that maximum entropy discrimination with a noninformative prior over multiple views is equivalent to the formulation of MKL. Instead of using the noninformative prior, we introduce a novel data-dependent prior based on an ensemble of kernel predictors, which enhances the prediction performance of MKL by leveraging the merits of the classifier ensemble. With the proposed probabilistic framework of MKL, we propose a hierarchical Bayesian model to learn the proposed data-dependent prior and classification model simultaneously. The resultant problem is convex and other information (e.g., instances with either missing views or missing labels) can be seamlessly incorporated into the data-dependent priors. Furthermore, a variety of existing MKL models can be recovered under the proposed MKL framework and can be readily extended to incorporate these priors. Extensive experiments demonstrate the benefits of our proposed framework in supervised and semisupervised settings, as well as in tasks with partial correspondence among multiple views.

Qiao, M, Bian, W, Xu, RYD & Tao, D 2015, 'Diversified Hidden Markov Models for Sequential Labeling.', IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng., vol. 27, no. 11, pp. 2947-2960.
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Qin, P-Y, Wei, F & Guo, YJ 2015, 'A Wideband-to-Narrowband Tunable Antenna Using A Reconfigurable Filter', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 63, no. 5, pp. 2282-2285.
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A novel microstrip circular disc monopole antenna with a reconfigurable 10-dB impedance bandwidth is proposed in this communication for cognitive radios (CRs). The antenna is fed by a microstrip line integrated with a bandpass filter based on a three-line coupled resonator (TLCR). The reconfiguration of the filter enables the monopole antenna to operate at either a wideband state or a narrowband state by using a PIN diode. For the narrowband state, two varactor diodes are employed to change the antenna operating frequency from 3.9 to 4.82 GHz continuously, which is different from previous work using PIN diodes to realize a discrete tuning. Similar radiation patterns with low cross-polarization levels are achieved for the two operating states. Measured results on tuning range, radiation patterns, and realized gains are provided, which show good agreement with numerical simulations.

Qin, S, Liu, F, Wang, C, Song, Y & Qu, J 2015, 'Spatial-temporal analysis and projection of extreme particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) levels using association rules: A case study of the Jing-Jin-Ji region, China', Atmospheric Environment, vol. 120, pp. 339-350.
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Qin, S, Liu, F, Wang, J & Song, Y 2015, 'Interval forecasts of a novelty hybrid model for wind speeds', Energy Reports, vol. 1, pp. 8-16.
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© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. The utilization of wind energy, as a booming technology in the field of renewable energies, has been highly regarded around the world. Quantification of uncertainties associated with accurate wind speed forecasts is essential for regulating wind power generation and integration. However, it remains difficult work primarily due to the stochastic and nonlinear characteristics of wind speed series. Traditional models for wind speed forecasting mostly focus on generating certain predictive values, which cannot properly handle uncertainties. For quantifying potential uncertainties, a hybrid model constructed by the Cuckoo Search Optimization (CSO)-based Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) is proposed to establish wind speed interval forecasts (IFs) by estimating the lower and upper bounds. The quality of IFs is assessed quantitatively using IFs coverage probability (IFCP) and IFs normalized average width (IFNAW). Moreover, to assess the overall quality of IFs comprehensively, a tradeoff between informativeness (IFNAW) and validity (IFCP) of IFs is examined by coverage width-based criteria (CWC). As an applicative study, wind speeds from the Xinjiang Region in China are used to validate the proposed hybrid model. The results demonstrate that the proposed model can construct higher quality IFs for short-term wind speed forecasts.

Qiu, N, Gao, Y, Fang, J, Feng, Z, Sun, G & Li, Q 2015, 'Crashworthiness analysis and design of multi-cell hexagonal columns under multiple loading cases', Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, vol. 104, pp. 89-101.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Multi-cell thin-walled structures have proven fairly effective in energy absorption and have been extensively used in vehicle engineering. However, the effects of multi-cell configurations and oblique loads on the crashworthiness performance have been under studied. This paper aims to investigate the crash behaviors of different multi-cell hexagonal cross-sectional columns under axial and oblique loads comprehensively. The modeling results are first validated by comparing with the theoretical and experimental data. It is found that for the same cell number, the number of corners plays a significant role in enhancing energy absorption. Second, a multicriteria decision-making method, namely complex proportional assessment (COPRAS), is used to select the best possible sectional configuration under multiple loading angles. Finally, the Kriging modeling technique and multiobjective particle optimization (MOPSO) algorithm are employed to optimize the dimensions of such a cross-sectional configuration. The results exhibit that an optimized multi-cell sectional tube is more competent in crashworthiness for multiple load cases (MLC).

Qu, J, Wong, D, Du, S, Yang, L, Ringer, S & Zheng, R 2015, 'Methodology exploration of specimen preparation for atom probe tomography from nanowires', Ultramicroscopy, vol. 159, pp. 427-431.
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Raghunandan, ME, Sharma, JS & Pradhan, B 2015, 'A review on the effect of rubber membrane in triaxial tests', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 3195-3206.
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Rahman, H, Shams-Ul-Islam, Zhou, CY, Kiyani, T & Saha, SC 2015, 'On the effect of Reynolds number for flow past three side-by-side square cylinders for unequal gap spacings', KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 233-247.
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Rahman, MA, Hogan, B, Duncan, E, Doyle, C, Rahman, MM, Nguyen, TV, Lim, RP, Maher, W, Naidu, R, Krassoi, R, Vigneswaran, S & Hassler, C 2015, 'Ecotoxicological Effects of an Arsenic Remediation Method on Three Freshwater Organisms—Lemna disperma, Chlorella sp. CE-35 and Ceriodaphnia cf. dubia', Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, vol. 226, no. 12, pp. 1-10.
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Chemical methods have been used for the remediation of arsenic (As)-contaminated water; however, ecological consequences of these methods have not been properly addressed. The present study evaluated the effects of the Fe-oxide-coated sand (IOCS) remediation method on As toxicity to freshwater organisms (Lemna disperma, Chlorella sp. CE-35, and Ceriodaphnia cf. dubia). The As removal efficiency by IOCS decreased substantially with time. The IOCS remediation method was less effective at suppressing the toxicity of AsV than AsIII to L. disperma but was highly effective in reducing both the AsIII and AsV toxicity to C. cf. dubia. The growth of Chlorella sp. was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in remediated and pre-remediated water than in controls (non-As-contaminated filtered Colo River water) for AsIII, while the opposite was observed for AsV, indicating that AsV is more toxic than AsIII to this microalga. Although the IOCS can efficiently remove As from contaminated water, residual As and other constituents (e.g. Fe, nitrate) in the remediated water had a significant effect on freshwater organisms.

Rahman, MS, Mahmud, MA, Pota, HR & Hossain, MJ 2015, 'A multi-agent approach for enhancing transient stability of smart grids', International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 67, pp. 488-500.
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Rahman, MS, Mahmud, MA, Pota, HR, Hossain, MJ & Orchi, TF 2015, 'Distributed Multi-Agent-Based Protection Scheme for Transient Stability Enhancement in Power Systems', International Journal of Emerging Electric Power Systems, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 117-129.
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AbstractThis paper presents a new distributed agent-based scheme to enhance the transient stability of power systems by maintaining phase angle cohesiveness of interconnected generators through proper relay coordination with critical clearing time (CCT) information. In this distributed multi-agent infrastructure, intelligent agents represent various physical device models to provide dynamic information and energy flow among different physical processes of power systems. The agents can communicate with each other in a distributed manner with a final aim to control circuit breakers (CBs) with CCT information as this is the key issue for maintaining and enhancing the transient stability of power systems. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated on a standard IEEE 39-bus New England benchmark system under different large disturbances such as three-phase short-circuit faults and changes in loads within the systems. From the simulation results, it is found that the proposed scheme significantly enhances the transient stability of power systems as compared to a conventional scheme of static CB operation.

Raja Ismail, RMT, That, ND & Ha, QP 2015, 'Modelling and robust trajectory following for offshore container crane systems', Automation in Construction, vol. 59, pp. 179-187.
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Ramezani, F, Lu, J, Taheri, J & Hussain, FK 2015, 'Evolutionary algorithm-based multi-objective task scheduling optimization model in cloud environments', WORLD WIDE WEB-INTERNET AND WEB INFORMATION SYSTEMS, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 1737-1757.
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© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Optimizing task scheduling in a distributed heterogeneous computing environment, which is a nonlinear multi-objective NP-hard problem, plays a critical role in decreasing service response time and cost, and boosting Quality of Service (QoS). This paper, considers four conflicting objectives, namely minimizing task transfer time, task execution cost, power consumption, and task queue length, to develop a comprehensive multi-objective optimization model for task scheduling. This model reduces costs from both the customer and provider perspectives by considering execution and power cost. We evaluate our model by applying two multi-objective evolutionary algorithms, namely Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) and Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA). To implement the proposed model, we extend the Cloudsim toolkit by using MOPSO and MOGA as its task scheduling algorithms which determine the optimal task arrangement among VMs. The simulation results show that the proposed multi-objective model finds optimal trade-off solutions amongst the four conflicting objectives, which significantly reduces the job response time and makespan. This model not only increases QoS but also decreases the cost to providers. From our experimentation results, we find that MOPSO is a faster and more accurate evolutionary algorithm than MOGA for solving such problems.

Rana, M & Li, L 2015, 'An Overview of Distributed Microgrid State Estimation and Control for Smart Grids', Sensors, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 4302-4325.
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Given the significant concerns regarding carbon emission from the fossil fuels, global warming and energy crisis, the renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) are going to be integrated in the smart grid. This grid can spread the intelligence of the energy distribution and control system from the central unit to the long-distance remote areas, thus enabling accurate state estimation (SE) and wide-area real-time monitoring of these intermittent energy sources. In contrast to the traditional methods of SE, this paper proposes a novel accuracy dependent Kalman filter (KF) based microgrid SE for the smart grid that uses typical communication systems. Then this article proposes a discrete-time linear quadratic regulation to control the state deviations of the microgrid incorporating multiple DERs. Therefore, integrating these two approaches with application to the smart grid forms a novel contributions in green energy and control research communities. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed KF based microgrid SE and control algorithm provides an accurate SE and control compared with the existing method.

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, S 2015, 'Distributed State Estimation Using RSC Coded Smart Grid Communications', IEEE Access, vol. 3, pp. 1340-1349.
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© 2013 IEEE. Recently, the renewable distributed energy resources (DERs) have become more and more popular due to carbon-free energy sources and environment-friendly electricity generation. Unfortunately, these power generation patterns are mostly intermittent in nature and distributed over the electrical grid, which creates challenging problems in the reliability of the smart grid. Thus, the smart grid has a strong requisite for an efficient communication infrastructure to facilitate estimating the DER states. In contrast to the traditional methods of centralized state estimation (SE), we propose a distributed approach to microgrid SE based on the concatenated coding structure. In this framework, the DER state is treated as a dynamic outer code, and the recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) code is seen as a concatenated inner code for protection and redundancy in the system states. Furthermore, in order to properly monitor the intermittent energy source from any place, this paper proposes a distributed SE method. Particularly, the outputs of the local SE are treated as measurements, which are fed into the master fusion station. At the end, the global SE can be obtained by combining local SEs with corresponding weighting factors. The weighting factors can be calculated by inspiring the covariance intersection method. The simulation results show that the proposed method is able to estimate the system state properly.

Ranjbar Kermany, A & Iacopi, F 2015, 'Controlling the intrinsic bending of hetero-epitaxial silicon carbide micro-cantilevers', Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 118, no. 15, pp. 155304-155304.
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We introduce a simple methodology to predict and tailor the intrinsic bending of a cantilever made of a single thin film of hetero-epitaxial silicon carbide grown on silicon. The combination of our novel method for the depth profiling of residual stress with a few nm resolution with finite element modelling allows for the prediction of the bending behaviour with great accuracy. We also demonstrate experimentally that a silicon carbide cantilever made of one distinct film type can be engineered to obtain the desired degree of either upward, flat, or downward bending, by selecting the appropriate thickness and cantilever geometry. A precise control of cantilever bending is crucial for microelectrical mechanical system applications such as micro-actuators, micro-switches, and resonant sensors.

Rashedul, HK, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Teoh, YH, How, HG & Rizwanul Fattah, IM 2015, 'Effect of antioxidant on the oxidation stability and combustion–performance–emission characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with diesel–biodiesel blend', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 106, pp. 849-858.
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Alexandrian laurel or Calophyllum inophyllum oil is recently considered one of the most anticipated nonconsumable or nonedible biodiesel sources. An attempt has been made in this study to increase the oxidation stability and investigate the engine performance, emission, and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine by adding 1% (by vol.) of two antioxidants, such as 2,6-Di-tert.-butyl-4-methylphenol and 2,2′-methylenebis (4-methyl-6-tert-butylphenol), in higher percentages of C. inophyllum biodiesel (CB30) with diesel fuel (B0). The experiment was performed on a single-cylinder, water-cooled, direct-injection diesel engine for this purpose. The addition of both antioxidants increased the oxidation stability without significantly changing other physicochemical properties. Results also show that the antioxidants enhanced the start of combustion of biodiesel, which resulted in a short ignition delay. The peak pressure and the peak heat release rate during premixed combustion phase of pure CB30 and its modified blend with antioxidant were higher than those of B0. Both antioxidant blends showed higher brake power, higher brake thermal efficiency, and lower brake specific fuel consumption than pure CB30. Both antioxidants significantly reduced NOX emission; however, CO, HC, and smoke opacity were slightly higher than those of CB30. Based on this study, Alexandrian laurel or C. inophyllum biodiesel blend (CB30) with antioxidant can be used as an alternative fuel in a diesel engine without modifications.

Rattananurak, W, Chang, J-S, Wattanachira, S, Johir, MAH & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'A novel plate settler in immersed membrane bioreactor (iMBR) in reducing membrane fouling', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 10-16.
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Reales, E, Bernabé-Rubio, M, Casares-Arias, J, Rentero, C, Fernández-Barrera, J, Rangel, L, Correas, I, Enrich, C, Andrés, G & Alonso, MA 2015, 'The MAL protein is crucial for proper membrane condensation at the ciliary base, which is required for primary cilium elongation', Journal of Cell Science, vol. 128, no. 12, pp. 2261-2270.
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ABSTRACT The base of the primary cilium contains a zone of condensed membranes whose importance is not known. Here, we have studied the involvement of MAL, a tetraspanning protein that exclusively partitions into condensed membrane fractions, in the condensation of membranes at the ciliary base and investigated the importance of these membranes in primary cilium formation. We show that MAL accumulates at the ciliary base of epithelial MDCK cells. Knockdown of MAL expression resulted in a drastic reduction in the condensation of membranes at the ciliary base, the percentage of ciliated cells and the length of the cilia, but did not affect the docking of the centrosome to the plasma membrane or produce missorting of proteins to the pericentriolar zone or to the membrane of the remaining cilia. Rab8 (for which there are two isoforms, Rab8A and Rab8b), IFT88 and IFT20, which are important components of the machinery of ciliary growth, were recruited normally to the ciliary base of MAL-knockdown cells but were unable to elongate the primary cilium correctly. MAL, therefore, is crucial for the proper condensation of membranes at the ciliary base, which is required for efficient primary cilium extension.

Reham, SS, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Shancita, I, Rizwanul Fattah, IM & Ruhul, AM 2015, 'Study on stability, fuel properties, engine combustion, performance and emission characteristics of biofuel emulsion', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 52, pp. 1566-1579.
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This study reviewed papers related to biofuel emulsion, principally assessing the use of biofuel emulsion. The discussion is focused mainly on three active areas of emulsified biofuel, namely, exploration of various factors affecting the preparation of stable emulsion and its fuel properties, investigation of the effect of water concentration on physicochemical properties of fuel, and observation of the improvement and degradation of combustion, performance, and emission characteristics and the possible methods to enhance these characteristics.

Reich, A, Rooney, D, Gardner, A, Willey, K, Boud, D & Fitzgerald, T 2015, 'Engineers' professional learning: a practice-theory perspective', European Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 366-379.
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© 2014 SEFI. With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical acquisition and transfer of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices – site walks and design review meetings – in which learning takes place.

Ren, L-F, Liang, S, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Ni, S-Q, Liu, C, Zhao, Y-K & Hira, D 2015, 'Enhancement of anammox performance in a novel non-woven fabric membrane bioreactor (nMBR)', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 106, pp. 86875-86884.
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As well as a membrane separator, a non-woven fabric module could be employed as a biomass carrier to enhance microorganism proliferation and nitrogen removal.

Rezazadeh, J, Moradi, M, Ismail, AS & Dutkiewicz, E 2015, 'Impact of static trajectories on localization in wireless sensor networks', Wireless Networks, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 809-827.
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Rizoiu, M-A, Velcin, J & Lallich, S 2015, 'Semantic-enriched Visual Vocabulary Construction in a Weakly Supervised Context', Intelligent Data Analysis, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 1-185.
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One of the prevalent learning tasks involving images is content-based imageclassification. This is a difficult task especially because the low-levelfeatures used to digitally describe images usually capture little informationabout the semantics of the images. In this paper, we tackle this difficulty byenriching the semantic content of the image representation by using externalknowledge. The underlying hypothesis of our work is that creating a moresemantically rich representation for images would yield higher machine learningperformances, without the need to modify the learning algorithms themselves.The external semantic information is presented under the form of non-positionalimage labels, therefore positioning our work in a weakly supervised context.Two approaches are proposed: the first one leverages the labels into the visualvocabulary construction algorithm, the result being dedicated visualvocabularies. The second approach adds a filtering phase as a pre-processing ofthe vocabulary construction. Known positive and known negative sets areconstructed and features that are unlikely to be associated with the objectsdenoted by the labels are filtered. We apply our proposition to the task ofcontent-based image classification and we show that semantically enriching theimage representation yields higher classification performances than thebaseline representation.

Rizoiu, M-A, Velcin, J & Lallich, S 2015, 'Unsupervised Feature Construction for Improving Data Representation and Semantics', Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, vol. 40, iss. 3, pp. 501-527, 2013, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 501-527.
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Feature-based format is the main data representation format used by machinelearning algorithms. When the features do not properly describe the initialdata, performance starts to degrade. Some algorithms address this problem byinternally changing the representation space, but the newly-constructedfeatures are rarely comprehensible. We seek to construct, in an unsupervisedway, new features that are more appropriate for describing a given dataset and,at the same time, comprehensible for a human user. We propose two algorithmsthat construct the new features as conjunctions of the initial primitivefeatures or their negations. The generated feature sets have reducedcorrelations between features and succeed in catching some of the hiddenrelations between individuals in a dataset. For example, a feature like $sky\wedge \neg building \wedge panorama$ would be true for non-urban images and ismore informative than simple features expressing the presence or the absence ofan object. The notion of Pareto optimality is used to evaluate feature sets andto obtain a balance between total correlation and the complexity of theresulted feature set. Statistical hypothesis testing is used in order toautomatically determine the values of the parameters used for constructing adata-dependent feature set. We experimentally show that our approaches achievethe construction of informative feature sets for multiple datasets.

Rocha, C, Formoso, C & Tzortzopoulos, P 2015, 'Adopting Product Modularity in House Building to Support Mass Customisation', Sustainability, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 4919-4937.
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Product modularity is a concept that can contribute to the improvement of product quality and production efficiency in house-building. However, there is a lack of consensus in the literature on the concepts that define product modularity. Furthermore, little attention has been given to the differences between building construction and manufacturing, for which product modularity was originally developed. This research aims to address that gap by adapting the conceptualization of product modularity so that it can effectively be used in the house-building industry. The methodological approach adopted in this study was Design Science Research, and two empirical studies were carried out on construction companies based in Brazil and in the U.K. Those studies are used to illustrate the applicability and utility of the proposed concepts and tools. Research findings indicate that the adoption of product modularity concepts results in benefits to both traditional construction technologies and pre-fabricated building systems.

Rooney, D, Gardner, A, Willey, K, Reich, A, Boud, D & Fitzgerald, T 2015, 'Reimagining site-walks: Sites for rich learning', Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 19-30.
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© Institution of Engineers Australia, 2015. This paper presents the preliminary results of a multi-phased qualitative investigation of continuing professional learning. The study focused on the identifi cation of common engineering practices that contribute to learning. This paper examines a particular practice, that of the site-walk. It draws on practice theory, an emerging set of conceptual resources used in workplace learning research. Data was elicited via qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups and site visits with experienced engineers employed in a large Australian engineering company. It was analysed using the lens of practice theory. The fi ndings suggest that site-walks, while an everyday practice for engineers, are also highly learning-rich. This understanding has implications for continual professional learning, and for educators of novice engineers.

Roser, C, Lorentzen, K & Deuse, J 2015, 'Reliable shop floor bottleneck detection for flow lines through process and inventory observations: the bottleneck walk', Logistics Research, vol. 8, no. 1.
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© 2015, The Author(s). Bottleneck detection in manufacturing is the key to improving production efficiency and stability in order to improve capacity. Yet, common bottleneck detection methods in industry and academia lack either accuracy or practicability, or both, for dynamic systems. The new methodology is conducted by the observation of processes and inventories. Blocked processes and full inventories indicate a downstream bottleneck. Starved processes and empty inventories indicate an upstream bottleneck. Through subsequent observations of multiple process states and inventory levels within a system, it is possible to determine the direction of the bottleneck at the given time and hence to find the momentary bottleneck in the system. The shifting of bottlenecks can be observed directly. Work sampling techniques can be used to obtain a long-term picture of the dynamically shifting bottleneck. The new methodology does not require any calculations, statistics, or time measurements. Hence, the method is suited for practical use by shop floor supervisors and clerks. The direct observation of the bottleneck also gives additional information about the underlying causes of the bottlenecks, simplifying the improvement of the system capacity. Extensive field testing of the method received positive feedback not only from management but also from shop floor operators. The method is already in use at the Robert Bosch GmbH, where it is known as the bottleneck walk.

Ross, PK & Blumenstein, M 2015, 'Cloud computing as a facilitator of SME entrepreneurship', Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 87-101.
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Rufangura, P & Sabah, C 2015, 'Dual-band perfect metamaterial absorber for solar cell applications', Vacuum, vol. 120, pp. 68-74.
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Rufangura, P & Sabah, C 2015, 'Polarization angle insensitive dual‐band perfect metamaterial absorber for solar cell applications', physica status solidi c, vol. 12, no. 9-11, pp. 1241-1245.
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AbstractA metamaterial absorber that effectively harvests solar energy is being proposed in this paper using a simple and high flexible structure. The proposed structure unit cell comprises of three vital layers. The ground metallic plane, an intermediate dielectric spacer while patches are wisely prepared on the top of a dielectric spacer. Geometrical parameters of the proposed metamaterial is studied in order to get insight on their impact for the absorption behaviour of the structure. The results from simulation provides two excellent absorption resonance (99.96% and 99.37%) in the visible spectrum range of electromagnetic wave. Due to the excellent symmetry of the proposed metamaterial design, its absorption coefficient is polarisation insensitive for a wide range of incident angles of electromagnetic radiations. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Ruhul, AM, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Fattah, IMR, Reham, SS & Rashed, MM 2015, 'State of the art of biodiesel production processes: a review of the heterogeneous catalyst', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 122, pp. 101023-101044.
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This study described the latest technology for fixed batch and continues biodiesel production for both laboratory and industrial scale as well as the role of the heterogeneous catalyst in biodiesel production process.

Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Indraratna, B 2015, 'Analytical solution for radial consolidation considering soil structure characteristics', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 52, no. 7, pp. 947-960.
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A system of surcharge load combined with vertical drains to speed up consolidation of soft soil by reducing the drainage path is one of the most efficient and economical ground improvement techniques. In the field, conventional theories including smear zone have been commonly employed to predict the radial consolidation behaviour induced by vertical drains in soft clay. One of the key parameters in conventional analysis is the use of mean coefficient of volume compressibility and soil permeability, which are often assumed to be constant. The effect of drain installation on the soil compressibility of the in situ clay structure is often ignored. Laboratory testing has shown that the soil compressibility and permeability can vary nonlinearly over a considerable range of applied surcharge pressure, and both these properties can be affected during the drain installation. This study presents a mathematical model of radial consolidation via vertical drains incorporating the variations of soil compressibility and permeability as well as highlighting the effects of drain installation on those parameters. The main differences between the proposed and conventional models are elucidated, in terms of stress history and preloading (surcharge) pressure. The effects of preconsolidation pressure and the magnitude of applied preloading are examined through the dissipation of average excess pore pressure and associated settlement. Supported by experimental observations, the proposed theory is validated with field data of a selected case study in the town of Ballina, New South Wales, Australia.

Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Indraratna, B 2015, 'Briefing: Effect of drain installation patterns on rate of consolidation', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Ground Improvement, vol. 168, no. 4, pp. 236-245.
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Prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) are employed to accelerate consolidation by decreasing the drainage path length. In the present study, using analytical solutions, an attempt was made to evaluate and quantify the effectiveness of two non-conventional PVD installation patterns, involving a parallel drain wall compared with a circular drain ring pattern, in contrast to conventional PVD installation (square or triangular patterns). The governing equations are based on the equal strain theory including the smear effect, and they provide a relative comparison between the two newly proposed installation patterns and the conventional square PVD grid, in terms of both the consolidation time and the equivalent drain spacing. The comparisons between the new and conventional installation patterns are made based on a single drain analysis and the density of PVDs per unit area.

Rujikiatkamjorn, C, Indraratna, B & Perera, D 2015, 'Alternative design approach for soft clay improved by PVDS', Australian Geomechanics Journal, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 137-144.
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In this paper the design procedures for multi-stage construction based on the research know-how described by Rujikiatkamjorn and Indraratna (2009) are proposed. The length of a vertical drain, anisotropic soil permeability and vacuum pressure are considered and a reduction in consolidation time through vacuum preloading is compared to other available methods. Design charts eliminating cumbersome iterative procedures are then developed using the equivalent drain diameter as an independent variable to obtain the relevant drain spacing. The design examples based on the land reclamation project at the Port of Brisbane for both single and multi-stage construction are also given.

Rush, A, Battisti, R, Barton, B & Catchpoole, D 2015, 'Opinions of Young Adults on Re-Consenting for Biobanking', The Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 167, no. 4, pp. 925-930.
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Objective To evaluate young adult cancer survivor opinions on whether their biobanked tissue and associated de-identified clinical data obtained during their childhood should require re-consent at the age of majority, when parental consent was originally provided. Study design Thirty young adults (18-34 years old), who were former pediatric oncology patients of The Children's Hospital at Westmead with stored research biospecimens, were recruited. They completed a semistructured interview, which included questions on biobanking re-consent, awareness of biobanked tissue, satisfaction about banked tissue, and independence within the family. Analyses included descriptive and inferential statistics. Results Sixty percent of participants thought that permission for biobanking should be sought again at adulthood, and the remaining 40% did not think that re-consent was necessary. Seventy percent of participants were unaware of their previously banked tissue, which was dependent upon age at diagnosis. When asked whether they granted permission for their tissue to remain in the biobank, all participants agreed. Conclusions Although results on whether young adults prefer to re-consent or not for previously biobanked tissue and corresponding clinical data are equivocal, survivors appear to be highly favorable about ongoing biobanking of their childhood specimens for future unspecified research.

Ryan, R & Hastings, C 2015, 'Missed opportunities for democratic engagement: the adoption of community indicators in local government', Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 33-43.
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Community indicators, as a framework for the measurement of community wellbeing and progress established in collaboration with the community itself, have more than three decades of history in the United States. Although community indicator projects developed in Australia from the 1990s onwards, particularly by local governments, they have primarily been used as a reporting tool rather than as an instrument for democratic engagement and evidence-based policy development. In this article, an analysis is provided of the range of approaches to community indicators in Australia and the United States. The argument is made for the use of community indicators to enhance the democratic capacity of local government. The aim is to stimulate discussion about the potential benefits of community indicator projects for local government in Australia and increase understanding of the possible extent of their application.

Safavi-Naeini, M, Han, Z, Alnaghy, S, Cutajar, D, Petasecca, M, Lerch, MLF, Franklin, DR, Bucci, J, Carrara, M, Zaider, M & Rosenfeld, AB 2015, 'BrachyView, a novel in-body imaging system for HDR prostate brachytherapy: Experimental evaluation', MEDICAL PHYSICS, vol. 42, no. 12, pp. 7098-7107.
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Purpose: This paper presents initial experimental results from a prototype of high dose rate (HDR) BrachyView, a novel in-body source tracking system for HDR brachytherapy based on a multipinhole tungsten collimator and a high resolution pixellated silicon detector array. The probe and its associated position estimation algorithms are validated and a comprehensive evaluation of the accuracy of its position estimation capabilities is presented. Methods: The HDR brachytherapy source is moved through a sequence of positions in a prostate phantom, for various displacements in x, y, and z. For each position, multiple image acquisitions are performed, and source positions are reconstructed. Error estimates in each dimension are calculated at each source position and combined to calculate overall positioning errors. Gafchromic film is used to validate the accuracy of source placement within the phantom. Results: More than 90% of evaluated source positions were estimated with an error of less than one millimeter, with the worst-case error being 1.3 mm. Experimental results were in close agreement with previously published Monte Carlo simulation results. Conclusions: The prototype of HDR BrachyView demonstrates a satisfactory level of accuracy in its source position estimation, and additional improvements are achievable with further refinement of HDR BrachyView's image processing algorithms.

Saha, SC & Gu, YT 2015, 'Natural convection in a triangular enclosure heated from below and non-uniformly cooled from top', International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 80, pp. 529-538.
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Sahebi, S, Phuntsho, S, Kim, JE, Hong, S & Shon, HK 2015, 'Pressure assisted fertiliser drawn osmosis process to enhance final dilution of the fertiliser draw solution beyond osmotic equilibrium', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 481, pp. 63-72.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Adequate dilution of fertiliser draw solution (DS) during fertiliser drawn forward osmosis (FDFO) desalination is important to meet nutrient concentration level for direct fertigation. The maximum DS dilution, however, occurs until the point of osmotic equilibrium between DS and feed solution (FS) thereby limiting the extent of DS dilution. Post-treatment such as nanofiltration (NF) process is required to reduce the fertiliser concentration. In this study however, pressure assisted fertiliser drawn osmosis (PAFDO) process was investigated to enhance DS dilution beyond the point of osmotic equilibrium and potentially eliminate NF post-treatment. The hydraulic pressure applied enhanced water flux significantly depending on the pressure. The applied pressure was found more effective at lower DS concentrations than at higher DS concentrations. For example, when a pressure of 10bar was applied to 10g/L NaCl FS with 0.1M (NH4)2SO4 DS, the water flux increased by 1928% against 38% with 3.0M (NH4)2SO4 DS. This additional water flux could dilute the fertiliser DS beyond the osmotic equilibrium concentrations thereby meeting the fertigation standard. PAFDO could potentially eliminate NF post-treatment significantly helping reduce the footprint and capital cost. However, the effective gain in water flux due to applied pressure at osmotic equilibrium decreased with the increase in the FS concentrations.

Sajjad, H, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Kalam, MA, Arbab, MI, Imtenan, S & Ashraful, AM 2015, 'Influence of gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel in the blends of Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel and diesel: An analysis of combustion–performance–emission characteristics', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 97, pp. 42-52.
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Salman, AM, Li, Y & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Evaluating system reliability and targeted hardening strategies of power distribution systems subjected to hurricanes', Reliability Engineering & System Safety, vol. 144, pp. 319-333.
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Over the years, power distribution systems have been vulnerable to extensive damage from hurricanes which can cause power outage resulting in millions of dollars of economic losses and restoration costs. Most of the outage is as a result of failure of distribution support structures. Over the years, various methods of strengthening distribution systems have been proposed and studied. Some of these methods, such as undergrounding of the system, have been shown to be unjustified from an economic point of view. A potential cost-effective strategy is targeted hardening of the system. This, however, requires a method of determining critical parts of a system that when strengthened, will have greater impact on reliability. This paper presents a framework for studying the effectiveness of targeted hardening strategies on power distribution systems subjected to hurricanes. The framework includes a methodology for evaluating system reliability that relates failure of poles and power delivery, determination of critical parts of a system, hurricane hazard analysis, and consideration of decay of distribution poles. The framework also incorporates cost analysis that considers economic losses due to power outage. A notional power distribution system is used to demonstrate the framework by evaluating and comparing the effectiveness of three hardening measures.

Sanjid, A, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Rahman, SMA, Abedin, MJ & Fattah, IMR 2015, 'Characterization and prediction of blend properties and evaluation of engine performance and emission parameters of a CI engine operated with various biodiesel blends', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 17, pp. 13246-13255.
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The present research is aimed to investigate the feasibility of using palm (PB), mustard (MB) and Calophyllum biodiesel (CB) as renewable and alternative fuels.

Sann Tan, E, Palanisamy, K, Meurah Indra Mahlia, T & Yoshikawa, K 2015, 'Performance and emission study on waste cooking oil biodiesel and distillate blends for microturbine application', AIMS Energy, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 798-809.
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Sarker, L, Xiang, Y, Zhu, XQ & Zhang, YY 2015, 'Damage detection of circular cylindrical shells by ritz method and wavelet analysis', Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 62-74.
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This paper presents a new technique based on the Ritz method for the damage detection of circular cylindrical shell structures. Sander's thin shell theory together with the Ritz method is used to analyse the dynamic behaviour of circular cylindrical shells. The crack damage on the shell surface is modelled by a rotational line spring along the circumference of the shell. Different damage scenarios are investigated by changing the crack locations and rotational spring stiffness. Modal parameters of shells with different damage patterns are obtained and compared. Wavelet analysis is carried out to detect the discontinuities in the mode shape where the damage is presented. It is found from the numerical results that the natural frequencies of the shell are insensitive to the crack damage. The wavelet analysis is effective to detect the damage in the circular cylindrical shell.

Sato, H, Manabe, K, Ito, K, Wei, D & Jiang, Z 2015, 'Development of servo-type micro-hydromechanical deep-drawing apparatus and micro deep-drawing experiments of circular cups', Journal of Materials Processing Technology, vol. 224, pp. 233-239.
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Sato, H, Manabe, K, Wei, DB, Jiang, ZY & Kondo, D 2015, 'Micro Sheet Hydroforming Process of Ultra-Thin Pure Titanium Foil', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 626, pp. 397-401.
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A micro hydromechanical deep drawing is carried out using the pure titanium and the effect of fluid pressure on formability of pure titanium is investigated. The experiments are performed using the two kinds of pure titanium foils (TR270C-H and TR270C-O) and stainless steel foil (SUS304-H) with 50 thickness and the cylindrical and conical punches. As a result, it is found that the peeling off the oxide film of pure titanium can be reduced by applying the fluid pressure because the friction force and contact pressure between the blank and die decreases. However, the formability is lower for pure titanium than that for stainless steel because the tensile strength is low and the friction force is easy to increase as the friction force increases. In contrast, due to the low young modulus of pure titanium, the restriction of wrinkling, decrease of friction force and friction holding effect can be obtained at low fluid pressure.

Schockaert, S & Li, S 2015, 'Realizing RCC8 networks using convex regions', Artificial Intelligence, vol. 218, pp. 74-105.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. RCC8 is a popular fragment of the region connection calculus, in which qualitative spatial relations between regions, such as adjacency, overlap and parthood, can be expressed. While RCC8 is essentially dimensionless, most current applications are confined to reasoning about two-dimensional or three-dimensional physical space. In this paper, however, we are mainly interested in conceptual spaces, which typically are high-dimensional Euclidean spaces in which the meaning of natural language concepts can be represented using convex regions. The aim of this paper is to analyze how the restriction to convex regions constrains the realizability of networks of RCC8 relations. First, we identify all ways in which the set of RCC8 base relations can be restricted to guarantee that consistent networks can be convexly realized in respectively 1D, 2D, 3D, and 4D. Most surprisingly, we find that if the relation 'partially overlaps' is disallowed, all consistent atomic RCC8 networks can be convexly realized in 4D. If instead refinements of the relation 'part of' are disallowed, all consistent atomic RCC8 relations can be convexly realized in 3D. We furthermore show, among others, that any consistent RCC8 network with 2n + 1variables can be realized using convex regions in the n -dimensional Euclidean space.

Schoene, D, Valenzuela, T, Toson, B, Delbaere, K, Severino, C, Garcia, J, Davies, TA, Russell, F, Smith, ST & Lord, SR 2015, 'Interactive Cognitive-Motor Step Training Improves Cognitive Risk Factors of Falling in Older Adults – A Randomized Controlled Trial', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 12, pp. e0145161-e0145161.
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Copyright © 2015 Schoene et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Purpose Interactive cognitive-motor training (ICMT) requires individuals to perform both gross motor movements and complex information processing. This study investigated the effectiveness of ICMT on cognitive functions associated with falls in older adults. Methods A single-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted in community-dwelling older adults (N = 90, mean age 81.5±7) without major cognitive impairment. Participants in the intervention group (IG) played four stepping games that required them to divide attention, inhibit irrelevant stimuli, switch between tasks, rotate objects and make rapid decisions. The recommended minimum dose was three 20-minute sessions per week over a period of 16 weeks unsupervised at home. Participants in the control group (CG) received an evidence- based brochure on fall prevention. Measures of processing speed, attention/executive function (EF), visuo-spatial ability, concerns about falling and depression were assessed before and after the intervention. Results Eighty-one participants (90%) attended re-assessment. There were no improvements with respect to the Stroop Stepping Test (primary outcome) in the intervention group. Compared to the CG, the IG improved significantly in measures of processing speed, visuo-spatial ability and concern about falling. Significant interactions were observed for measures of EF and divided attention, indicating group differences varied for different levels of the covariate with larger improvements in IG participants with poorer baseline performance. The interaction for depression showed no change for the IG but an increase in the CG for those with low depressive symptoms at baseline. Additionally, low and high-adhe...

Schulten, C & Parnell, J 2015, 'Development Around Freight Rail Corridors: Noise Assessment and Mitigation', Acoustics Australia, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 265-273.
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As residential encroachment increases along freight rail corridors or near freight hubs, poor acoustic design of residential developments can lead to increased complaints and community resistance to projects aimed at expanding the freight network and delivering economic growth. Developers and consent authorities, including local councils, must follow planning controls to address noise impact in the assessment and design of sensitive development near rail corridors, The Department of Planning and Environment published the Development Near Rail Corridors and Busy Roads—Interim Guideline (2008) to provide guidance to those assessing noise and designing sensitive developments (such as residences) to avoid and mitigate noise impacts. Extensive noise monitoring recently conducted has provided data to improve the quality of assessments and design for areas near curved or steep gradient track and near freight rail hubs. This paper references a comprehensive noise data set as an evidence base to provide guidance on the identification of affectation zones around freight rail corridors and freight rail hubs where risk of land use conflict is high. The paper also presents three case studies giving examples of how residential developments can be designed to address noise from freight operations.

Schwitter, BK, Fattorini, AP, Parker, AE, Mahon, SJ & Heimlich, MC 2015, 'Parameter Extractions for a GaAs pHEMT Thermal Model Using a TFR-Heated Test Structure', IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 795-801.
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Scofield, JMP, Gurr, PA, Kim, J, Fu, Q, Halim, A, Kentish, SE & Qiao, GG 2015, 'High‐performance thin film composite membranes with well‐defined poly(dimethylsiloxane)‐b‐poly(ethylene glycol) copolymer additives for CO₂ separation', Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, vol. 53, no. 12, pp. 1500-1511.
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ABSTRACTA series of well‐defined diblock copolymers (BCPs) consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) were synthesized and blended with commercially available PEBAX® 2533 to form the active layer of thin‐film composite (TFC) membranes, via spin‐coating. BCPs with a PEG component ranging from 1 to 10 kDa and a PDMS component ranging from 1 to 10 kDa were synthesized by a facile condensation reaction of hydroxyl terminated PEG and carboxylic acid functionalized PDMS. The BCP/PEBAX® 2533 blends up to 50 wt % on cross‐linked PDMS gutter layers were tested at 35 °C and 350 kPa. TFC membranes containing BCPs of 1 kDa PEG and 1–5 kDa PDMS produced optimal results with CO2 permeances of approximately 1000 GPU which is an increase up to 250% of the permeance of pure PEBAX® 2533 composite membranes, while maintaining a CO2/N2 selectivity of 21. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015, 53, 1500–1511

Semblante, GU, Hai, FI, Bustamante, H, Guevara, N, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Effects of iron salt addition on biosolids reduction by oxic-settling-anoxic (OSA) process', International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, vol. 104, pp. 391-400.
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Semblante, GU, Hai, FI, Huang, X, Ball, AS, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Trace organic contaminants in biosolids: Impact of conventional wastewater and sludge processing technologies and emerging alternatives', Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. 300, pp. 1-17.
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Sepehrirahnama, S, Lim, K-M & Chau, FS 2015, 'Numerical Analysis of the Acoustic Radiation Force and Acoustic Streaming Around a Sphere in an Acoustic Standing Wave', Physics Procedia, vol. 70, pp. 80-84.
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Sepehrirahnama, S, Lim, K-M & Chau, FS 2015, 'Numerical study of interparticle radiation force acting on rigid spheres in a standing wave', The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 137, no. 5, pp. 2614-2622.
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Acoustic radiation force can be used to move micro-sized particles, such as cells, in microfluidic devices. Although the number of particles in a microfluidic device is large, typically 2.5% (weight/volume), the acoustic force acting on a particle is commonly calculated using an analytical formula for a single particle in infinite medium. The interparticle forces are typically ignored as these are not easily accounted for and calculated with simple closed-form solutions. Based on the isothermal theory for an ideal fluid, a numerical scheme is hereby proposed to calculate the total radiation force, including the interparticle forces. The method uses the multipole series expansion and the weighted residual method to solve the governing Helmholtz equation with the necessary boundary conditions on the particle surface. The effect of different parameters on the primary and interparticle forces is studied using the proposed numerical scheme. It is shown that, near the pressure node, the interparticle forces are dominant and configurations of the spheres are determined by the interparticle forces. The proposed numerical scheme can be used for various sizes of spherical particles.

Sercombe, TB, Xu, X, Challis, VJ, Green, R, Yue, S, Zhang, Z & Lee, PD 2015, 'Failure modes in high strength and stiffness to weight scaffolds produced by Selective Laser Melting', Materials & Design, vol. 67, pp. 501-508.
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The production of porous scaffold structures using additive manufacturing is becoming widespread, however a detailed understanding of the scaffold failure mechanisms is lacking. In this research, Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is used to produce Ti-6Al-4V scaffold structures consisting of a regular array of unit cells previously designed using topology optimisation. Interrupted compression testing and subsequent X-Ray Micro Tomography (XMT) characterisation is used to study the deformation and failure of the scaffolds for a range of solid fractions. Further, the XMT data of the unloaded scaffolds is used to generate meshes for finite element analysis which allowed direct comparison of desired and as built behaviour. Likely failure sites predicted from the finite element analysis compare favourably with the experimentally observed ones. Failure is initiated in areas that exhibit the greatest tensile stress, while the onset of the commonly observed layered failure occurs afterwards. The XMT of the unloaded scaffolds also highlights the inaccuracies in the SLM build process, which contributes to stress concentrations in the horizontal arms within the scaffolds. The results indicate that although the strength of the topology optimised structures is very high, further refinement in both the unit cell design and build quality would further increase the strength.

Shahid, M, McDonagh, A, Kim, JH & Shon, HK 2015, 'Magnetised titanium dioxide (TiO₂) for water purification: preparation, characterisation and application', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 54, no. 4-5, pp. 979-1002.
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The study of titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a photocatalyst for water purification has attracted significant attention over the past four decades. However, the separation of photocatalyst from water suspension may be difficult, costly and jeopardise the use of this water treatment technology. Recently, the development and production of magnetised TiO2 have been achieved to offer a solution for the photocatalyst separation problem. This paper discusses the preparation techniques, characterisation and the applications of magnetised TiO2. Many researchers have studied magnetised TiO2 photocatalysts but the lack of articles discussing the water purification processes is still slowing any advance in this field. Here, the progress of the scientific research on preparation techniques to coat magnetic particles by materials such as organic polymers, silica, magnesia, and alumina are reviewed to compare and discuss recent findings. The doping of photoactive TiO2 photocatalyst into the magnetic-coated particles is also emphasised. In addition, the characterisation of magnetised TiO2 in terms of physicochemical properties and operating conditions produced by each technique are critically reviewed. Moreover, examples of applications of TiO2 and magnetised TiO2 photocatalyst in water purification are summarised. In general, the effectiveness of organic removal by magnetised TiO2 is still lower compared to single phase TiO2. The future prospect of this field is deliberated to develop a novel, economic and efficient magnetised TiO2 photocatalyst, which has high organic removal properties.

Shahid, M, Saliby, IE, Tijing, LD, McDonagh, A, Park, SM, Lee, KY, Shon, HK & Kim, J-H 2015, 'Synthesis and Characterisation of Silica-Modified Titania for Photocatalytic Decolouration of Crystal Violet', Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, vol. 15, no. 7, pp. 5326-5329.
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In the past few years, silica-modified titania has drawn increasing attention due to their special properties making them ideal candidates for a wide range of applications. In this study, we report a novel method for the synthesis of silica-modified titania by a sol–gel method using sodium silicate solution (1 M). The hydrolysis and condensation reactions of titanium dioxide (TiO2, Degussa Aeroxide® P25) in sodium silicate solution proceeded with citric acid (3 M) as a catalyst. The orbital shaking method was followed for the removal of sodium salt formed during the sol–gel process. Solvent exchange was carried out using methanol and hexane. Finally, chemical modification of the gel was conducted using trimethylchlorosilane followed by ambient pressure drying. The obtained silica-modified titania was characterised for nanostructural analysis using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements were employed to investigate the BET surface area, pore structure and pore volume of specimens. Thermal gravimetric analysis showed exothermic peaks at temperature range of 90–190 °C representing the oxidation of organic groups from –Si–R network. The silica-modified titania showed high photocatalytic activity and an easy recovery using crystal violet as model water pollutant.

Shahir, SA, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Imran, A & Ashraful, AM 2015, 'Performance and emission assessment of diesel–biodiesel–ethanol/bioethanol blend as a fuel in diesel engines: A review', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 48, pp. 62-78.
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Shambour, Q & Lu, J 2015, 'An effective recommender system by unifying user and item trust information for B2B applications', JOURNAL OF COMPUTER AND SYSTEM SCIENCES, vol. 81, no. 7, pp. 1110-1126.
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Shanmuganathan, S, Johir, MAH, Nguyen, TV, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Experimental evaluation of microfiltration-granular activated carbon (MF-GAC)/nano filter hybrid system in high quality water reuse', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 476, pp. 1-9.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. In order to achieve high quality water reuse, a dual membrane hybrid system (combining microfiltration-granular activated carbon (MF-GAC)) adsorption hybrid system followed by nanofiltration (NF)) was used. This system[U+05F3]s performance was evaluated in terms of organic matter, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), and removal of inorganic matter. Biologically treated sewage effluent (BTSE) collected from a water reclamation plant in Sydney, Australia was used as the water source. The removal efficiency of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) of MF-GAC strongly depends on the dose of GAC and filtration flux. MF-GAC system effectively removed hydrophobic organics (45-80%) as well as hydrophilic organics (50-80%). The removal of various PPCPs ranged from 33% to 92%, and as expected, the amount of inorganic matter removed by the MF-GAC system was very small. Hence, the NF system, as a second membrane system, was employed to polish the effluent from the MF-GAC hybrid system. The NF system rejected most of DOC (>95%), sulfates (99%) and a substantial amount of calcium (70%), and magnesium (60%) from MF-GAC effluent. Further, more than 90% of PPCPs were removed by the NF system. Overall the dual membrane hybrid system proved to be very effective in removing organics, PPCPs and inorganic matter. The MF-GAC followed by NF results in high quality water reuse and this system can serve as an effective treatment option for water reuse schemes.

Shanmuganathan, S, Nguyen, TV, Jeong, S, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Submerged membrane - (GAC) adsorption hybrid system in reverse osmosis concentrate treatment', SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 146, pp. 8-14.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Abstract Wastewater reclamation plants using reverse osmosis as the final polishing treatment produce reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC), which consists of high salinity, nutrients and (recalcitrant) organics. The ROC collected from the water reclamation plant in Sydney was treated with a micro filtration (MF)-GAC hybrid system that removed natural and synthetic organics prior to its discharge into the environment. The MF-GAC hybrid system's performance was studied in terms of trans-membrane pressure (TMP) development, and organics removal. These features were measured using liquid chromatography-organic carbon detection (LC-OCD), Fluorescence Excitation-Emission matrix (F-EEM), and Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS). Adding GAC into the membrane reactor reduced the TMP by reducing membrane fouling both through mechanical scouring and pre-adsorption of organics. F-EEM confirms the removal of humics-like and fulvic-like compounds by GAC from ROC. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were also removed by the MF-GAC hybrid system.

Shanmuganathan, S, Vigneswaran, S, Nguyen, TV, Loganathan, P & Kandasamy, J 2015, 'Use of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis in reclaiming micro-filtered biologically treated sewage effluent for irrigation', DESALINATION, vol. 364, pp. 119-125.
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Micro-filtered, biologically treated sewage effluent (BTSE) generally has high sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl) concentrations. Therefore it cannot be directly used for irrigating sensitive crops. A study was conducted on a micro-filtered BTSE from a Sydney water treatment plant to determine whether the BTSE can be treated using nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) to bring these risk parameters within safety limits. The study showed that using NF and RO alone could not produce the required ratio of SAR. Furthermore, NF alone did not remove the necessary levels of Na and Cl ions while RO did. However, blending equal proportions of NF permeate and RO permeate obtained from a two stages hybrid treatment system consisting of NF followed by RO resulted in a product quality suitable for irrigation in terms of the above mentioned risk factors. Utilizing NF prior to RO reduced the RO membrane fouling as well. Both NF and RO removed most of the pharmaceutical and personal care products from the feed water and this may subsequently protect soil and ground water from potential hazards.

Shariati, N, Rowe, WST, Scott, JR & Ghorbani, K 2015, 'Multi-Service Highly Sensitive Rectifier for Enhanced RF Energy Scavenging', SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, vol. 5.
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Due to the growing implications of energy costs and carbon footprints, the need to adopt inexpensive, green energy harvesting strategies are of paramount importance for the long-term conservation of the environment and the global economy. To address this, the feasibility of harvesting low power density ambient RF energy simultaneously from multiple sources is examined. A high efficiency multi-resonant rectifier is proposed, which operates at two frequency bands (478-496 and 852-869 MHz) and exhibits favorable impedance matching over a broad input power range (40 to 10 dBm). Simulation and experimental results of input reflection coefficient and rectified output power are in excellent agreement, demonstrating the usefulness of this innovative low-power rectification technique. Measurement results indicate an effective efficiency of 54.3%, and an output DC voltage of 772.8 mV is achieved for a multi-tone input power of '10 dBm. Furthermore, the measured output DC power from harvesting RF energy from multiple services concurrently exhibits a 3.14 and 7.24 fold increase over single frequency rectification at 490 and 860 MHz respectively. Therefore, the proposed multi-service highly sensitive rectifier is a promising technique for providing a sustainable energy source for low power applications in urban environments.

Sharma, M, Qadir, A, Khalilpour, R & Abbas, A 2015, 'Modeling and analysis of process configurations for solvent‐based post‐combustion carbon capture', Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 764-780.
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AbstractThis paper investigates different configurations for solvent‐based post‐combustion carbon capture processes. The aim of this paper is to find the best process configuration for amine stripping process to be used for further study. From the literature, some of the most energy‐efficient schemes are identified and compared in different scenarios. It was found that for absorber, the two most talked about configurations worth investigating are inter‐cooling and pump‐around, while for stripper modification, rich split, lean vapor compression (LVC), and a new configuration‐phase separation heat exchanger (PSHE) have shown quite promising results, although the best way of comparison would be the techno‐economic analysis of all the configurations; from heuristics, two stand‐alone modifications for absorber, pump‐around and inter‐cooling; and three stripper modifications, rich split, LVC, and PSHE combined with absorber inter‐cooling are simulated and compared based on their energy consumption. The next step of this work will be the total cost calculation and heat integration of these schemes with power plant. © 2015 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sharma, N, Shivakumara, P, Pal, U, Blumenstein, M & Tan, CL 2015, 'Piece-wise linearity based method for text frame classification in video', Pattern Recognition, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 862-881.
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Shemesh, J, Jalilian, I, Shi, A, Heng Yeoh, G, Knothe Tate, ML & Ebrahimi Warkiani, M 2015, 'Flow-induced stress on adherent cells in microfluidic devices', Lab on a Chip, vol. 15, no. 21, pp. 4114-4127.
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The article describes flow-induced stress on adherent cells in microfluidics devices in light of ongoing discoveries in mechanobiology.

Shen, L, Lu, DD & Li, C 2015, 'Adaptive sliding mode control method for DC–DC converters', IET Power Electronics, vol. 8, no. 9, pp. 1723-1732.
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© 2015. The Institution of Engineering and Technology. This study presents an adaptive sliding mode control method for DC-DC converters. In the state space model of DC-DC converters, there are always some unknown coordinate components of the desired equilibrium point (static working point), which are necessary to obtain the error vector and then build the sliding surface. To obtain the unknown coordinate components of the equilibrium point, an adaptive law is proposed. The adaptive law and the error response are formulated in a single equation, which determines the system performance. A systematic sliding mode control design procedure of a class of DC-DC converters is hence carried out. To verify the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed adaptive sliding mode control method, the negative output elementary super lift Luo converter is used as a design example. Simulation and experimental results are reported to confirm the proposed approach.

Shenoy, AU & Shenoy, UV 2015, 'Continuous targeting and network design for zero wastewater discharge in water system integration', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 627-641.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Electric mobility is a topic of intense discussions in academia and industry since the stability of future energy supply as well as the associated environmental consequences are uncertain. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the research and development status of battery technologies for electric vehicles which are reflecting the interface of the automotive, chemical and electronics sector. The present study applies patent families as technological indicators in order to analyze the research activities of each step of the designed battery value chain individually and in comparison with each other to identify and discuss trends regarding the technologies associated to electric vehicles. By applying this explorative approach to the comparably new field, the study contributes to both the scientific literature on patent analysis as well as on emerging industry and value creation structures related to the electric mobility sector. Although the distribution of patents shows an emphasis on active components, the high number of patents covering more than one value chain step points towards the tendency of considering the whole value chain in systemic research approaches. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of patent assignees reveals insights on the knowledge dissemination across the value chain whereby the major share of industry actors still appears to be focused on their respective core competences but also administers important links to other value chain steps. The increase of collaborative activities across steps further hints towards starting shifts in value creation activities.

Shi, L, Wei, D, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Du, B & Wei, Q 2015, 'Application of anaerobic granular sludge for competitive biosorption of methylene blue and Pb(II): Fluorescence and response surface methodology', Bioresource Technology, vol. 194, pp. 297-304.
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Shi, Y & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Damage and risk assessment for reinforced concrete wall panels subjected to explosive blast loading', International Journal of Impact Engineering, vol. 85, pp. 5-19.
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The structural integrity of reinforced concrete (RC) structures in blast events is important for critical facilities. In this paper, a structural reliability analysis is conducted to predict the damage and risk reduction for RC wall panels subjected to explosive blast loading. Due to considerable uncertainties associated with material properties, dimensions, structural response, blast loading, as well as expected damage, probabilistic methods are used in quantifying the probability of damage for conventional and blast-resistant RC precast cladding wall panels by incorporating spatial and non-spatial variables. The variability of blast loading is also taken into consideration. Monte Carlo simulation and numerical methods are utilized to predict damage of RC wall panels subject to various threat scenarios, based on a physics-based computer programme LS-DYNA to estimate maximum support rotations. It was found that spatial variability of concrete compressive strength and concrete cover has little effects on the structural reliability for precast concrete panels, and the blast-resistant wall has 5%-100% lower probability of hazardous failure than the corresponding value for a conventional wall.

Shi, Y & Stewart, MG 2015, 'Spatial reliability analysis of explosive blast load damage to reinforced concrete columns', Structural Safety, vol. 53, pp. 13-25.
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Columns are the key load-bearing elements in frame structures and exterior columns are probably the most vulnerable structural components to terrorist attack. In this paper, a spatial reliability analysis is conducted to predict the damage for reinforced concrete (RC) columns subject to explosive blast loading. The spatial variability of material and dimensional properties of RC columns are modelled by stationary and non-stationary random fields. The variability of blast loading is also taken into consideration. Monte Carlo simulation and numerical methods are used to derive Blast Reliability Curves for RC columns under explosive loading for a number of terrorism threat scenarios, based on a high-fidelity physics-based computer programme LS-DYNA to estimate design and residual axial load-carrying capacity of RC columns. It was found that spatial variability has a significant effect on structural reliabilities and the spatial model will lead to more accurate predictions of damage and safety risks.

Shirbin, SJ, Ladewig, K, Fu, Q, Klimak, M, Zhang, X, Duan, W & Qiao, GG 2015, 'Cisplatin-Induced Formation of Biocompatible and Biodegradable Polypeptide-Based Vesicles for Targeted Anticancer Drug Delivery', Biomacromolecules, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 2463-2474.
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Shompa, SS, Afroz, F & Haque, AKMF 2015, 'Analysis on Fractional Frequency Reuse Factor over Traditional Frequency Reuse Factor in Cellular System', IJWMN, vol. vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 77-89.

Shrestha, A, Johir, MAH, Vigneswaran, S & Kandasamy, J 2015, 'A comparative study on in-line flocculation and spiral flocculation followed by media filtration as a pre-treatment of seawater', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 892-900.
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© 2014 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Abstract: In this study the efficiency of two different flocculation systems namely in-line flocculation and spiral flocculation followed by media filtration (sand or anthracite) have been investigated as a pre-treatment of seawater to reverse osmosis. The performances of these filtration systems were assessed in terms of turbidity removal, head loss development, ultra filter-modified fouling index (UF-MFI) and organic matters removal. Both systems showed 60–70% removal of turbidity. In-line flocculation and filtration showed 2–3 times higher head loss development than spiral flocculation filtration. These filtration systems helped to reduce the fouling potential (in terms of UF-MFI) by 50–73%, whereas dissolved organic carbon-removal efficiency was 30–45%. The fractionation of organic matter showed that both systems removed 70% of hydrophobic organic matters. The removals of hydrophilic organics were around 30–40%. Among the hydrophilic compounds, the removal of biopolymer and lower molecular weight neutrals and acid were higher than that of humic substances’ and building blocks’.

Shungin, D, Winkler, TW, Croteau-Chonka, DC, Ferreira, T, Locke, AE, Mägi, R, Strawbridge, RJ, Pers, TH, Fischer, K, Justice, AE, Workalemahu, T, Wu, JMW, Buchkovich, ML, Heard-Costa, NL, Roman, TS, Drong, AW, Song, C, Gustafsson, S, Day, FR, Esko, T, Fall, T, Kutalik, Z, Luan, J, Randall, JC, Scherag, A, Vedantam, S, Wood, AR, Chen, J, Fehrmann, R, Karjalainen, J, Kahali, B, Liu, C-T, Schmidt, EM, Absher, D, Amin, N, Anderson, D, Beekman, M, Bragg-Gresham, JL, Buyske, S, Demirkan, A, Ehret, GB, Feitosa, MF, Goel, A, Jackson, AU, Johnson, T, Kleber, ME, Kristiansson, K, Mangino, M, Mateo Leach, I, Medina-Gomez, C, Palmer, CD, Pasko, D, Pechlivanis, S, Peters, MJ, Prokopenko, I, Stančáková, A, Ju Sung, Y, Tanaka, T, Teumer, A, Van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, JV, Yengo, L, Zhang, W, Albrecht, E, Ärnlöv, J, Arscott, GM, Bandinelli, S, Barrett, A, Bellis, C, Bennett, AJ, Berne, C, Blüher, M, Böhringer, S, Bonnet, F, Böttcher, Y, Bruinenberg, M, Carba, DB, Caspersen, IH, Clarke, R, Warwick Daw, E, Deelen, J, Deelman, E, Delgado, G, Doney, ASF, Eklund, N, Erdos, MR, Estrada, K, Eury, E, Friedrich, N, Garcia, ME, Giedraitis, V, Gigante, B, Go, AS, Golay, A, Grallert, H, Grammer, TB, Gräßler, J, Grewal, J, Groves, CJ, Haller, T, Hallmans, G, Hartman, CA, Hassinen, M, Hayward, C, Heikkilä, K, Herzig, K-H, Helmer, Q, Hillege, HL, Holmen, O, Hunt, SC, Isaacs, A, Ittermann, T, James, AL, Johansson, I, Juliusdottir, T, Kalafati, I-P, Kinnunen, L, Koenig, W, Kooner, IK, Kratzer, W, Lamina, C, Leander, K, Lee, NR, Lichtner, P, Lind, L, Lindström, J, Lobbens, S, Lorentzon, M, Mach, F, Magnusson, PKE, Mahajan, A, McArdle, WL, Menni, C, Merger, S, Mihailov, E, Milani, L, Mills, R, Moayyeri, A, Monda, KL, Mooijaart, SP, Mühleisen, TW, Mulas, A, Müller, G, Müller-Nurasyid, M, Nagaraja, R, Nalls, MA, Narisu, N, Glorioso, N, Nolte, IM, Olden, M, Rayner, NW, Renstrom, F, Ried, JS, Robertson, NR, Rose, LM, Sanna, S, Scharnagl, H, Scholtens, S, Sennblad, B, Seufferlein, T, Sitlani, CM, Vernon Smith, A, Stirrups, K, Stringham, HM, Sundström, J, Swertz, MA, Swift, AJ, Syvänen, A-C, Tayo, BO, Thorand, B, Thorleifsson, G, Tomaschitz, A, Troffa, C, van Oort, FVA, Verweij, N, Vonk, JM, Waite, LL, Wennauer, R, Wilsgaard, T, Wojczynski, MK, Wong, A, Zhang, Q, Hua Zhao, J, Brennan, EP, Choi, M, Eriksson, P, Folkersen, L, Franco-Cereceda, A, Gharavi, AG, Hedman, ÅK & et al. 2015, 'New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution', Nature, vol. 518, no. 7538, pp. 187-196.
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© 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, we conducted genome-wide association meta-analyses of waist and hip circumference-related traits in up to 224,459 individuals. We identified 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (WHRadjBMI) and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P<5×10-8). Twenty of the 49 WHRadjBMI loci showed significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which displayed a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation, and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms.

Siddiqa, S, Hossain, MA & Saha, SC 2015, 'Two-phase natural convection flow of a dusty fluid', International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 1542-1556.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct a detailed investigation of the two-dimensional natural convection flow of a dusty fluid. Therefore, the incompressible boundary layer flow of a two-phase particulate suspension is investigated numerically over a semi-infinite vertical flat plate. Comprehensive flow formations of the gas and particle phases are given in the boundary layer region. Primitive variable formulation is employed to convert the nondimensional governing equations into the non-conserved form. Three important two-phase mechanisms are discussed, namely, water-metal mixture, oil-metal mixture and air-metal mixture. Design/methodology/approach – The full coupled nonlinear system of equations is solved using implicit two point finite difference method along the whole length of the plate. Findings – The authors have presented numerical solution of the dusty boundary layer problem. Solutions obtained are depicted through the characteristic quantities, such as, wall shear stress coefficient, wall heat transfer coefficient, velocity distribution and temperature distribution for both phases. Results are interpreted for wide range of Prandtl number Pr (0.005-1,000.0). It is observed that thin boundary layer structures can be formed when mass concentration parameter or Prandtl number (e.g. oil-metal particle mixture) are high. Originality/value – The results of the study may be of some i...

Silakhori, M, Fauzi, H, Mahmoudian, MR, Metselaar, HSC, Mahlia, TMI & Khanlou, HM 2015, 'Preparation and thermal properties of form-stable phase change materials composed of palmitic acid/polypyrrole/graphene nanoplatelets', Energy and Buildings, vol. 99, pp. 189-195.
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Silitonga, AS, Masjuki, HH, Mahlia, TMI, Ong, HC, Kusumo, F, Aditiya, HB & Ghazali, NNN 2015, 'Schleichera oleosa L oil as feedstock for biodiesel production', Fuel, vol. 156, pp. 63-70.
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Silverman, BG, Hanrahan, N, Bharathy, G, Gordon, K & Johnson, D 2015, 'A systems approach to healthcare: Agent-based modeling, community mental health, and population well-being.', Artif. Intell. Medicine, vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 61-71.
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Singer, JP, Pelligra, CI, Kornblum, N, Choo, Y, Gopinadhan, M, Bordeenithikasem, P, Ketkaew, J, Fatt Liew, S, Cao, H, Schroers, J & Osuji, CO 2015, 'Multiscale patterning of a metallic glass using sacrificial imprint lithography', Microsystems & Nanoengineering, vol. 1, no. 1.
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AbstractBulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have been developed as a means to achieve durable multiscale, nanotextured surfaces with desirable properties dictated by topography for a multitude of applications. One barrier to this achievement is the lack of a bridging technique between macroscale thermoplastic forming and nanoimprint lithography, which arises from the difficulty and cost of generating controlled nanostructures on complex geometries using conventional top-down approaches. This difficulty is compounded by the necessary destruction of any resulting reentrant structures during rigid demolding. We have developed a generalized method to overcome this limitation by sacrificial template imprinting using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures. It is established that such structures can be grown inexpensively and quickly with tunable morphologies on a wide variety of substrates out of solution, which we exploit to generate the nanoscale portion of the multiscale pattern through this bottom-up approach. In this way, we achieve metallic structures that simultaneously demonstrate features from the macroscale down to the nanoscale, requiring only the top-down fabrication of macro/microstructured molds. Upon detachment of the formed part from the multiscale molds, the ZnO remains embedded in the surface and can be removed by etching in mild conditions to both regenerate the mold and render the surface of the BMGs nanoporous. The ability to pattern metallic surfaces in a single step on length scales from centimeters down to nanometers is a critical step toward fabricating devices with complex shapes that rely on multiscale topography for their intended functions, such as biomedical and electrochemical applications.

Siwakoti, YP, Blaabjerg, F & Loh, PC 2015, 'Quasi-Y-Source Boost DC–DC Converter', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 6514-6519.
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Siwakoti, YP, Loh, PC, Blaabjerg, F, Andreasen, SJ & Town, GE 2015, 'Y-Source Boost DC/DC Converter for Distributed Generation.', IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 1059-1069.
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Siwakoti, YP, Peng, FZ, Blaabjerg, F, Loh, PC & Town, GE 2015, 'Impedance-Source Networks for Electric Power Conversion Part I: A Topological Review', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 699-716.
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© 2014 IEEE. Impedance networks cover the entire of electric power conversion from dc (converter, rectifier), ac (inverter), to phase and frequency conversion (ac-ac) in a wide range of applications. Various converter topologies have been reported in the literature to overcome the limitations and problems of the traditional voltage source, current source as well as various classical buck-boost, unidirectional, and bidirectional converter topologies. Proper implementation of the impedance-source network with appropriate switching configurations and topologies reduces the number of power conversion stages in the system power chain, which may improve the reliability and performance of the power system. The first part of this paper provides a comprehensive review of the various impedance-source-networks-based power converters and discusses the main topologies from an application point of view. This review paper is the first of its kind with the aim of providing a 'one-stop' information source and a selection guide on impedance-source networks for power conversion for researchers, designers, and application engineers. A comprehensive review of various modeling, control, and modulation techniques for the impedance-source converters/inverters will be presented in Part II.

Siwakoti, YP, Peng, FZ, Blaabjerg, F, Loh, PC, Town, GE & Yang, S 2015, 'Impedance-Source Networks for Electric Power Conversion Part II: Review of Control and Modulation Techniques', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 1887-1906.
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© 1986-2012 IEEE. Impedance-source networks cover the entire spectrum of electric power conversion applications (dc-dc, dc-ac, ac-dc, ac-ac) controlled and modulated by different modulation strategies to generate the desired dc or ac voltage and current at the output. A comprehensive review of various impedance-source-network-based power converters has been covered in a previous paper and main topologies were discussed from an application point of view. Now Part II provides a comprehensive review of the most popular control and modulation strategies for impedance-source network-based power converters/inverters. These methods are compared in terms of theoretical complexity and performance, when applied to the respective switching topologies. Further, this paper provides as a guide and quick reference for researchers and practicing engineers in deciding which control and modulation method to consider for an application in a given topology at a certain power level, switching frequency and demanded dynamic response.

Sleap, SB, Turner, BD & Sloan, SW 2015, 'Kinetics of fluoride removal from spent pot liner leachate (SPLL) contaminated groundwater', Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 2580-2587.
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Sohaib, O & Kang, K 2015, 'Individual level culture influence on online consumer iTrust aspects towards purchase intention across cultures: A S-O-R model.', Int. J. Electron. Bus., vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 142-161.
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© 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Building trust and understanding its relationship with online purchasing decisions is important to business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce firms seeking to extend their consumers reach globally. Based on the Stimulus- Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, this paper examines the moderating role of culture on the relationship between B2C web design (web accessibility, visual appearance and social networking services (SNS)) and interpersonal trust (iTrust), cognitive and affect-based trust that trigger online purchasing intentions. Motivation of this study includes, testing and comparing individual consumer level cultural (individualism and uncertainty avoidance) values as moderators in our research model across two different societies (Australia and Pakistan). The data of the survey were analysed using structural equation modelling-partial least square (SEM-PLS) approach. The results highlight the need to consider cultural differences when identifying the mix of web design strategies to employ in B2C e-commerce websites, not only at the country level but also in one culturally diverse country such as Australia.

Sojoudi, A, Saha, SC & Gu, YT 2015, 'Natural convection due to differential heating of inclined walls and heat source placed on bottom wall of an attic shaped space', Energy and Buildings, vol. 89, pp. 153-162.
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Soltanmohammadi, M, Saberi, M, Yoon, JH, Soltanmohammadi, K & Pazhoheshfar, P 2015, 'Risk Critical Point (RCP): A Quantifying Safety-Based Method Developed to Screen Construction Safety Risks', Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 221-235.
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©2015 KIIE. Risk assessment is an important phase of risk management. It is the stage in which risk is measured thoroughly to achieve effective management. Some factors such as probability and impact of risk have been used in the literature related to construction projects. Because in high-rise projects safety issues are paramount, this study has tried to develop a quantifying technique that takes into account three factors: probability, impact and Safety Performance Index (SPI) where the SPI is defined as the capability of an appropriate response to reduce or limit the effect of an event after its occurrence with regard to safety pertaining to a project. Regarding risk-related literatures which cover an uncertain subject, the proposed method developed in this research is based on a fuzzy logic approach. This approach entails a questionnaire in which the subjectivity and vagueness of responses is dealt with by using triangular fuzzy numbers instead of linguistic terms. This method returns a Risk Critical Point (RCP) on a zoning chart that places risks under categories: critical, critical-probability, critical-impact, and non-critical. The high-rise project in the execution phase has been taken as a case study to confirm the applicability of the proposed method. The monitoring results showed that the RCP method has the inherent ability to be extended to subsequent applications in the phases of risk response and control.

Song, R, Catchpoole, DR, Kennedy, PJ & Li, J 2015, 'Identification of lung cancer miRNA–miRNA co-regulation networks through a progressive data refining approach', Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 380, pp. 271-279.
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Song, Y & Wen, S 2015, 'Synchronization control of stochastic memristor-based neural networks with mixed delays', Neurocomputing, vol. 156, pp. 121-128.
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Song, Y, Qin, S, Qu, J & Liu, F 2015, 'The forecasting research of early warning systems for atmospheric pollutants: A case in Yangtze River Delta region', Atmospheric Environment, vol. 118, pp. 58-69.
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Sounthararajah, DP, Loganathan, P, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Adsorptive removal of heavy metals from water using sodium titanate nanofibres loaded onto GAC in fixed-bed columns', JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, vol. 287, pp. 306-316.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Heavy metals are serious pollutants in aquatic environments. A study was undertaken to remove Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn individually (single metal system) and together (mixed metals system) from water by adsorption onto a sodium titanate nanofibrous material. Langmuir adsorption capacities (mg/g) at 10-3M NaNO3 ionic strength in the single metal system were 60, 83, 115 and 149 for Ni, Zn, Cu, and Cd, respectively, at pH 6.5 and 250 for Pb at pH 4.0. In the mixed metals system they decreased at high metals concentrations. In column experiments with 4% titanate material and 96% granular activated carbon (w/w) mixture at pH 5.0, the metals breakthrough times and adsorption capacities (for both single and mixed metals systems) decreased in the order Pb>Cd, Cu>Zn>Ni within 266 bed volumes. The amounts adsorbed were up to 82 times higher depending on the metal in the granular activated carbon+titanate column than in the granular activated carbon column. The study showed that the titanate material has high potential for removing heavy metals from polluted water when used with granular activated carbon at a very low proportion in fixed-bed columns.

Sounthararajah, DP, Loganathan, P, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2015, 'Effects of Humic Acid and Suspended Solids on the Removal of Heavy Metals from Water by Adsorption onto Granular Activated Carbon', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 10475-10489.
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Stewart, M & Netherton, M 2015, 'Preface', International Journal of Protective Structures, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. iii-iii.
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Stewart, MG 2015, 'Risk and economic viability of housing climate adaptation strategies for wind hazards in southeast Australia', Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 601-622.
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A changing climate and higher wind speeds means that residential construction is likely to receive more damage in the future if design standards are maintained at the current level. The vulnerability of residential construction may be reduced by an adaptation strategy that increases design wind speeds specified by Australian standards. The paper applies break-even analysis to compare the risks, costs and benefits of climate adaptation strategies for new housing in the three largest cities in Australia: Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. These cities are located in southeast Australia where wind hazard is dominated by synoptic winds (thunderstorms and east-coast lows). Break-even estimates of risk reduction and adaptation cost for designing new housing to enhanced standards were calculated for three synoptic wind pattern scenarios to 2070: (1) no change, (2) B1 and (3) A1FI emission scenarios. If the actual cost of adaptation exceeds the predicted break-even value, then adaptation is not cost-effective. It was found that this adaptation strategy can lead to risk reductions of 50–80 % at a cost of approximately 1 % of house replacement value. If risk reduction is over 50 %, discount rate is 4 %, and there is no change of climate, the break-even analysis shows that adaptation is cost-effective for Sydney if the adaptation cost is less than 5–9 % of house replacement cost. Designing new housing to enhance wind classifications is also likely to be a cost-effective adaptation strategy for Brisbane and Melbourne.

Stewart, MG & Deng, X 2015, 'Climate Impact Risks and Climate Adaptation Engineering for Built Infrastructure', ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering, vol. 1, no. 1.
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A changing climate may increase the frequency or intensity of natural hazards, resulting in increased infrastructure damage. The paper will describe how risk-based approaches are well suited to optimising climate adaptation strategies related to the construction, design, operation, and maintenance of built infrastructure. Climate adaptation engineering involves estimating the risks, costs, and benefits of climate adaptation strategies and assessing at what point in time climate adaptation becomes economically viable. Stochastic methods are used to model infrastructure performance, risk reduction, and effectiveness of adaptation strategies, exposure, and costs. These concepts will be illustrated with recent research on risk-based life-cycle assessments of climate adaptation strategies for Australian housing subject to extreme wind events. This will pave the way for more efficient and resilient infrastructure, and help future proof new and existing infrastructure to a changing climate.

Stewart, MG & Deng, X 2015, 'Closure to “Climate Impact Risks and Climate Adaptation Engineering for Built Infrastructure” by Mark G. Stewart and Xiaoli Deng', ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering, vol. 1, no. 2.
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Stewart, MG & Mueller, J 2015, 'Responsible policy analysis in aviation security with an evaluation of PreCheck', Journal of Air Transport Management, vol. 48, pp. 13-22.
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Officials serving the public are tasked at the most fundamental level to spend funds in a manner that most effectively and efficiently keeps people safe. To do otherwise is irresponsible. In the case of counterterrorism policy-making, it is important, then, to evaluate the degree to which any gains in security afforded by counterterrorism measures are great enough to justify their cost. Risk analysis is an aid to responsible decisionmaking that does exactly that. We deal with four elements central to this approach-the cost per saved life, acceptable risk, cost-benefit analysis, and risk communication-and we discuss the degree to which risk analysis has been applied within the government to evaluate counterterrorism measures. We summarize our findings when this approach is used to assess the cost-effectiveness of airline and airport security measures, and then conclude by applying it to PreCheck, a measure that seems likely to bring considerable efficiencies to the screening process and great benefits to passengers, airports, and airlines while actually enhancing security somewhat.

Stewart, MG & Netherton, MD 2015, 'Reliability-Based Design Load Factors for Explosive Blast Loading', Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, vol. 29, no. 5.
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Reliability-based design allows the decision maker to select the level of reliability for a specific blast loading scenario and key to this is an understanding of airblast uncertainty. Hence, explosive field trials have been conducted in Australia that measured the variability of free-field blast loading caused by military standard plastic explosives. The results have revealed a high level of variability of peak incident pressure, impulse, and time of positive phase duration for repeatable tests where variability would be expected to be a minimum. The accuracy of predictive blast load models (model error) was also assessed. A probabilistic blast load computer model is revised to capture these observed variabilities. The effect of a 20% mass-increase safety factor typically applied to explosive mass on the probability of exceeding a design blast load is assessed. Reliability-based load factors are calculated where the nominal load is multiplied by the load factor to ensure that the actual load is equal to the reliability level. Reliability-based load factors are estimated for reliability levels of 0.05-0.99, for a range of scaled distances for military munitions. The load factor can be as low as 0.66 for a 0.05 reliability level and as high as 1.30 for a 0.99 reliability level.

Su, S, Huang, Z, NuLi, Y, Tuerxun, F, Yang, J & Wang, J 2015, 'A novel rechargeable battery with a magnesium anode, a titanium dioxide cathode, and a magnesium borohydride/tetraglyme electrolyte', Chemical Communications, vol. 51, no. 13, pp. 2641-2644.
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Commercial TiO₂ in a compatible electrolyte of 0.5 mol L⁻¹ Mg(BH₄)₂/LiBH₄/TG ([LiBH₄] = 1.5 mol L⁻¹) delivers high specific capacity, and excellent cycling stability and rate capability. This work opens up a new alternative for the development of rechargeable magnesium batteries.

Su, SW, Savkin, AV, Guo, Y, Celler, BG & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Decentralized Integral Controllability Analysis Based on a New Unconditional Stability Criterion', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTOMATIC CONTROL, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 211-215.
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Decentralized integral control is one of the most popular control strategies used in practice. An important issue associated with this strategy is the analysis of Decentralized Integral Controllability (DIC). Campo and Morari showed that for a given process, if its steady state gain matrix is not critically D-stable, its DIC can be determined by using its steady state gain matrix. This technical note investigates decentralized integral control with a special focus on the DIC analysis of processes whose steady state gain matrices are critically D-stable. First, we introduce a new unconditional stability criterion. Then, by using the proposed criterion, it is proved that for up to four-channel processes, their DIC can be totally determined by their steady state gain matrices. We also present a multi-loop PI control design method, which provides an explicit lower bound of the proportional coefficient to achieve decentralized unconditional stability for low dimensional processes. For higher dimensional processes, this technical note presents a six-channel process whose DIC property cannot be determined only by its steady state gain matrix, contradicting the view of some other researchers.

Sui, Y, Zhao, X, Zhang, S, Yu, X, Zhao, S & Zhang, L 2015, 'Self-expressive tracking', Pattern Recognition, vol. 48, no. 9, pp. 2872-2884.
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Sun, G, Fang, J, Tian, X, Li, G & Li, Q 2015, 'Discrete robust optimization algorithm based on Taguchi method for structural crashworthiness design', Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 42, no. 9, pp. 4482-4492.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Hybrid steel-aluminum tailor welded structures have drawn considerable attention and been widely applied in automotive and aerospace industries for their significant advantages in high strength to weight ratios and superior energy absorption characteristics. Structural optimization is considered to be one of the most important means to improve the crashworthiness of tailor welded structures. However, majority of the existing optimization studies to data have not considered uncertainties for simplication. Its associated risk is that a deterministic optimization might deteriorate its optimality and/or violate design constraints when being present in uncertain environment. This study aimed to explore how to maximize the crashworthiness of the hybrid tailor welded structures involving uncertainties. For this purpose, a novel robust optimization algorithm based on successive Taguchi approach for design in discrete space is firstly presented. In the optimization process, the peak force is taken as an objective, while specific energy absorption (SEA) as a constraint. The optimal results show that not only the performance of peak force and specific energy absorption is improved, but also the robustness of these two indicators is also significantly enhanced. The proposed algorithm can also be used to solve other more complicated engineering problems.

Sun, G, Tian, X, Fang, J, Xu, F, Li, G & Huang, X 2015, 'Dynamical bending analysis and optimization design for functionally graded thickness (FGT) tube', International Journal of Impact Engineering, vol. 78, pp. 128-137.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. As a relatively new component with a higher efficiency of material utilization, functionally graded thickness (FGT) structure with desired varying wall thickness has been becoming more and more attractive. In order to sufficiently understand the crashworthiness of FGT under lateral impact, firstly, the finite element (FE) models of thin-walled columns with uniform thickness (UT) and FGT under lateral loading are established and validated by experimental results. It is exhibited that the FE simulations are in good agreement with experimental tests. Then, the crashworthiness of UT tube and the corresponding FGT tube is compared, and the results reveal that the FGT tube can absorb more energy but generate larger force than UT tube under the same weight. Further, parametric analyses show the gradient exponent, wall thickness range, the tube diameter and yielding stress have significant effects on the crashworthiness of FGT tubes. Finally, a multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) method is used to optimally seek for those design parameters, where surrogate modeling methods are adopted to formulate the specific energy absorption (SEA) and peak crushing force functions. The results yielded from the optimization demonstrate that the FGT tube is superior to its uniform thickness counterpart in overall crashing behavior under lateral impact. Therefore, FGT tubes are recommended as potential absorbers of crashing energy under lateral loading.

Sun, J, Hu, S, Sharma, KR, Ni, B-J & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Degradation of methanethiol in anaerobic sewers and its correlation with methanogenic activities', Water Research, vol. 69, pp. 80-89.
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Methanethiol (MT) is considered one of the predominant odorants in sewer systems. Therefore, understanding MT transformation in sewers is essential to sewer odor assessment and abatement. In this study, we investigated the degradation of MT in laboratory anaerobic sewers. Experiments were carried out in seven anaerobic sewer reactors with biofilms at different stages of development. MT degradation was found to be strongly dependent on the methanogenic activity of sewer biofilms. The MT degradation rate accelerated with the increase of methanogenic activity of sewer biofilms, resulting in MT accumulation (i.e. net production) in sewer reactors with relatively low methanogenic activities, and MT removal in reactors with higher methanogenic activities. A Monod-type kinetic expression was developed to describe MT degradation kinetics in anaerobic sewers, in which the maximum degradation rate was modeled as a function of the maximum methane production rate through a power function. It was also found that MT concentration had a linear relationship with acetate concentration, which may be used for preliminary assessment of MT presence in anaerobic sewers.

Sun, W-J, Wei, Z-F, Sun, D-A, Liu, S-Q, Fatahi, B & Wang, X-Q 2015, 'Evaluation of the swelling characteristics of bentonite–sand mixtures', Engineering Geology, vol. 199, pp. 1-11.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The swelling characteristic of bentonite-sand mixtures is an important index in evaluating the long term performance of the deep geological repository of nuclear waste. In this study the swelling characteristics of different types of bentonite-sand mixtures with various sand contents are compared. It is concluded that for pure bentonite and bentonite-sand mixtures with less sand than the critical sand content, the relationship between montmorillonite void ratio and vertical stress can be expressed as a unique line in a double logarithmic plot, and volumetric strain under a given vertical stress and swelling pressure at a constant volume after full saturation can be predicted based on this line; however, for mixtures with more sand than the critical sand content, the above relationship deviates from the line when the stress is larger than the starting deviation stress, which can be determined using the sand skeleton void ratio. Before the sand skeleton forms, the vertical stress is borne mainly by montmorillonite particles and the amount of swelling at full saturation is determined by the content of montmorillonite per unit volume, however, after the sand skeleton forms the vertical stress is borne by both the montmorillonite and the sand skeleton. The stress distribution coefficient is proposed to present a proportion of the vertical stress that is borne by both parts. A predictive method, verified by the swelling tests on bentonite-sand mixtures with various sand contents, is suggested to predict the amount of swelling due to saturation in the full range of sand content.

Sun, Y, Bell, JL, Carter, D, Gherardi, S, Poulos, RC, Milazzo, G, Wong, JWH, Al-Awar, R, Tee, AE, Liu, PY, Liu, B, Atmadibrata, B, Wong, M, Trahair, T, Zhao, Q, Shohet, JM, Haupt, Y, Schulte, JH, Brown, PJ, Arrowsmith, CH, Vedadi, M, MacKenzie, KL, Hüttelmaier, S, Perini, G, Marshall, GM, Braithwaite, A & Liu, T 2015, 'WDR5 Supports an N-Myc Transcriptional Complex That Drives a Protumorigenic Gene Expression Signature in Neuroblastoma', Cancer Research, vol. 75, no. 23, pp. 5143-5154.
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Abstract MYCN gene amplification in neuroblastoma drives a gene expression program that correlates strongly with aggressive disease. Mechanistically, trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) at target gene promoters is a strict prerequisite for this transcriptional program to be enacted. WDR5 is a histone H3K4 presenter that has been found to have an essential role in H3K4 trimethylation. For this reason, in this study, we investigated the relationship between WDR5-mediated H3K4 trimethylation and N-Myc transcriptional programs in neuroblastoma cells. N-Myc upregulated WDR5 expression in neuroblastoma cells. Gene expression analysis revealed that WDR5 target genes included those with MYC-binding elements at promoters such as MDM2. We showed that WDR5 could form a protein complex at the MDM2 promoter with N-Myc, but not p53, leading to histone H3K4 trimethylation and activation of MDM2 transcription. RNAi-mediated attenuation of WDR5 upregulated expression of wild-type but not mutant p53, an effect associated with growth inhibition and apoptosis. Similarly, a small-molecule antagonist of WDR5 reduced N-Myc/WDR5 complex formation, N-Myc target gene expression, and cell growth in neuroblastoma cells. In MYCN-transgenic mice, WDR5 was overexpressed in precancerous ganglion and neuroblastoma cells compared with normal ganglion cells. Clinically, elevated levels of WDR5 in neuroblastoma specimens were an independent predictor of poor overall survival. Overall, our results identify WDR5 as a key cofactor for N-Myc–regulated transcriptional activation and tumorigenesis and as a novel therapeutic target for MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas. Cancer Res; 75(23); 5143–54. ©2015 AACR.

Sun, Y, Gong, B, Yuan, X, Zheng, Z, Wang, G, Chen, G, Zhou, C, Wang, W & Ji, B 2015, 'What We have Learned about Minimized Extracorporeal Circulation versus Conventional Extracorporeal Circulation: An Updated Meta-Analysis', The International Journal of Artificial Organs, vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 444-453.
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IntroductionThe benefits of minimized extracorporeal circulation (MECC) compared with conventional extracorporeal circulation (CECC) are still in debate.MethodsPubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched until November 10, 2014. After quality assessment, we chose a fixed-effects model when the trials showed low heterogeneity, otherwise a random-effects model was used. We performed univariate meta-regression and sensitivity analysis to search for the potential sources of heterogeneity. Cumulative meta-analysis was performed to access the evolution of outcome over time.Results41 RCTs enrolling 3744 patients were included after independent article review by 2 authors. MECC significantly reduced atrial fibrillation (RR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.89; P<0.001; I2= 0%), and myocardial infarction (RR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.26 to 0.71; P = 0.001; I2= 0%). In addition, the results regarding chest tube drainage, transfusion rate, blood loss, red blood cell transfusion volume, and platelet count favored MECC as well.ConclusionsMECC diminished morbidity of cardiovascular complications postoperatively, conserved blood cells, and reduced allogeneic blood transfusion.

Sun, Y, Zhao, L, Huang, S, Yan, L & Dissanayake, G 2015, 'Line matching based on planar homography for stereo aerial images', ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, vol. 104, pp. 1-17.
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© 2015 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). We propose an efficient line matching algorithm for a pair of calibrated aerial photogrammetric images, which makes use of sparse 3D points triangulated from 2D point feature correspondences to guide line matching based on planar homography. Two different strategies are applied in the proposed line matching algorithm for two different cases. When three or more points can be found coplanar with the line segment to be matched, the points are used to fit a plane and obtain an accurate planar homography. When one or two points can be found, the approximate terrain plane parallel to the line segment is utilized to compute an approximate planar homography. Six pairs of rural or urban aerial images are used to demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed algorithm. Compared with line matching based on 2D point feature correspondences, the proposed method can increase the number of correctly matched line segments. In addition, compared with most line matching methods that do not use 2D point feature correspondences, the proposed method has better efficiency, although it obtains fewer matches. The C/C++ source code for the proposed algorithm is available at http://services.eng.uts.edu.au/~sdhuang/research.htm.

Suñer, S, Joffe, R, Tipper, JL & Emami, N 2015, 'Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene/graphene oxide nanocomposites: Thermal, mechanical and wettability characterisation', Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 78, pp. 185-191.
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Surawski, NC, Sullivan, AL, Meyer, CP, Roxburgh, SH & Polglase, PJ 2015, 'Greenhouse gas emissions from laboratory-scale fires in wildland fuels depend on fire spread mode and phase of combustion', ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS, vol. 15, no. 9, pp. 5259-5273.
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© Author(s) 2015. Free-burning experimental fires were conducted in a wind tunnel to explore the role of ignition type and thus fire spread mode on the resulting emissions profile from combustion of fine (< 6 mm in diameter) Eucalyptus litter fuels. Fires were burnt spreading with the wind (heading fire), perpendicular to the wind (flanking fire) and against the wind (backing fire). Greenhouse gas compounds (i.e. CO2, CH4 and N2O) and CO were quantified using off-axis integrated-cavity-output spectroscopy. Emissions factors calculated using a carbon mass balance technique (along with statistical testing) showed that most of the carbon was emitted as CO2, with heading fires emitting 17% more CO2 than flanking and 9.5% more CO2 than backing fires, and about twice as much CO as flanking and backing fires. Heading fires had less than half as much carbon remaining in combustion residues. Statistically significant differences in CH4 and N2O emissions factors were not found with respect to fire spread mode. Emissions factors calculated per unit of dry fuel consumed showed that combustion phase (i.e. flaming or smouldering) had a statistically significant impact, with CO and N2O emissions increasing during smouldering combustion and CO2 emissions decreasing. Findings on the equivalence of different emissions factor reporting methods are discussed along with the impact of our results for emissions accounting and potential sampling biases associated with our work. The primary implication of this study is that prescribed fire practices could be modified to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from forests by judicial use of ignition methods to induce flanking and backing fires over heading fires.

Sutter, D, Tomamichel, M & Harrow, AW 2015, 'Strengthened Monotonicity of Relative Entropy via Pinched Petz Recovery Map', IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 62, no. 5, pages 2907-2913, 2016, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 2907-2913.
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The quantum relative entropy between two states satisfies a monotonicityproperty meaning that applying the same quantum channel to both states cannever increase their relative entropy. It is known that this inequality is onlytight when there is a 'recovery map' that exactly reverses the effects of thequantum channel on both states. In this paper we strengthen this inequality byshowing that the difference of relative entropies is bounded below by themeasured relative entropy between the first state and a recovered state fromits processed version. The recovery map is a convex combination of rotated Petzrecovery maps and perfectly reverses the quantum channel on the second state.As a special case we reproduce recent lower bounds on the conditional mutualinformation such as the one proved in [Fawzi and Renner, Commun. Math. Phys.,2015]. Our proof only relies on elementary properties of pinching maps and theoperator logarithm.

Tabatabaiefar, HR, Fatahi, B, Ghabraie, K & Zhou, W-H 2015, 'Evaluation of numerical procedures to determine seismic response of structures under influence of soil-structure interaction', Structural Engineering and Mechanics, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 27-47.
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Copyright © 2015 Techno-Press, Ltd. In this study, the accuracy and reliability of fully nonlinear method against equivalent linear method for dynamic analysis of soil-structure interaction is investigated comparing the predicted results of both numerical procedures with the results of experimental shaking table tests. An enhanced numerical soil-structure model has been developed which treats the behaviour of the soil and the structure with equal rigour. The soil-structural model comprises a 15 storey structural model resting on a soft soil inside a laminar soil container. The structural model was analysed under three different conditions: (i) fixed base model performing conventional time history dynamic analysis, (ii) flexible base model (considering full soil-structure interaction) conducting equivalent linear dynamic analysis, and (iii) flexible base model performing fully nonlinear dynamic analysis. The results of the above mentioned three cases in terms of lateral storey deflections and inter-storey drifts are determined and compared with the experimental results of shaking table tests. Comparing the experimental results with the numerical analysis predictions, it is noted that equivalent linear method of dynamic analysis underestimates the inelastic seismic response of mid-rise moment resisting building frames resting on soft soils in comparison to the fully nonlinear dynamic analysis method. Thus, inelastic design procedure, using equivalent linear method, cannot adequately guarantee the structural safety for mid-rise building frames resting on soft soils. However, results obtained from the fully nonlinear method of analysis fit the experimental results reasonably well. Therefore, this method is recommended to be used by practicing engineers.

Tahan Latibari, S, Mehrali, M, Mehrali, M, Afifi, ABM, Mahlia, TMI, Akhiani, AR & Metselaar, HSC 2015, 'Facile synthesis and thermal performances of stearic acid/titania core/shell nanocapsules by sol–gel method', Energy, vol. 85, pp. 635-644.
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Tahan Latibari, S, Mehrali, M, Mehrali, M, Mahlia, TMI & Metselaar, HSC 2015, 'Fabrication and Performances of Microencapsulated Palmitic Acid with Enhanced Thermal Properties', Energy & Fuels, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 1010-1018.
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Talatahari, S, Gandomi, AH, Yang, X-S & Deb, S 2015, 'Optimum design of frame structures using the Eagle Strategy with Differential Evolution', Engineering Structures, vol. 91, pp. 16-25.
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Modern metaheuristic algorithms are in general suited for global optimization. This paper combines the recently developed eagle strategy algorithm with differential evolution. The new algorithm, denoted as the ES-DE, is implemented by interfacing SAP2000 structural analysis code and MATLAB mathematical software. The performance of the ES-DE is evaluated by solving four benchmark problems where the objective is to minimize the weight of steel frames. The optimized designs obtained by the proposed algorithm are better than those found by the standard differential evolution algorithm and also very competitive with literature. The overall convergence behavior is significantly enhanced by the hybrid optimization strategy.

Tan, M, Tsang, IW & Wang, L 2015, 'Matching Pursuit LASSO Part I: Sparse Recovery Over Big Dictionary', IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 727-741.
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© 2015 IEEE. Large-scale sparse recovery (SR) by solving ℓ1-norm relaxations over Big Dictionary is a very challenging task. Plenty of greedy methods have therefore been proposed to address big SR problems, but most of them require restricted conditions for the convergence. Moreover, it is non-trivial for them to incorporate the ℓ1-norm regularization that is required for robust signal recovery. We address these issues in this paper by proposing a Matching Pursuit LASSO (MPL) algorithm, based on a novel quadratically constrained linear program (QCLP) formulation, which has several advantages over existing methods. Firstly, it is guaranteed to converge to a global solution. Secondly, it greatly reduces the computation cost of the ℓ1-norm methods over Big Dictionaries. Lastly, the exact sparse recovery condition of MPL is also investigated.

Tan, M, Tsang, IW & Wang, L 2015, 'Matching Pursuit LASSO Part II: Applications and Sparse Recovery Over Batch Signals', IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 742-753.
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© 2015 IEEE. In Part I, a Matching Pursuit LASSO (MPL) algorithm has been presented for solving large-scale sparse recovery (SR) problems. In this paper, we present a subspace search to further improve the performance of MPL, and then continue to address another major challenge of SR-batch SR with many signals, a consideration which is absent from most of previous ℓ1-norm methods. A batch-mode MPL is developed to vastly speed up sparse recovery of many signals simultaneously. Comprehensive numerical experiments on compressive sensing and face recognition tasks demonstrate the superior performance of MPL and BMPL over other methods considered in this paper, in terms of sparse recovery ability and efficiency. In particular, BMPL is up to 400 times faster than existing ℓ1-norm methods considered to be state-of-the-art.

Tan, S, Fu, Q, Scofield, JMP, Kim, J, Gurr, PA, Ladewig, K, Blencowe, A & Qiao, GG 2015, 'Cyclodextrin-based supramolecular polymeric nanoparticles for next generation gas separation membranes', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 3, no. 28, pp. 14876-14886.
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Cyclodextrin-based supramolecular polyrotaxanes are for the first time used as soft nanoparticle additives for the selective layer of composite membranes. They exhibit outstanding gas transport characteristics at low additive percentages, due to the dynamic nature of the PDMS side chains.

Tan, S, Nam, E, Cui, J, Xu, C, Fu, Q, Ren, JM, Wong, EHH, Ladewig, K, Caruso, F, Blencowe, A & Qiao, GG 2015, 'Fabrication of ultra-thin polyrotaxane-based films via solid-state continuous assembly of polymers', Chemical Communications, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 2025-2028.
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Surface-confined ultra-thin polyrotaxane (PRX)-based films with tunable composition, surface topology and swelling characteristics were prepared by solid-state continuous assembly of polymers (ssCAP).

Tan, Z, Jamdagni, A, He, X, Nanda, P, Liu, RP & Hu, J 2015, 'Detection of Denial-of-Service Attacks Based on Computer Vision Techniques', IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 64, no. 9, pp. 2519-2533.
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© 1968-2012 IEEE. Detection of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks has attracted researchers since 1990s. A variety of detection systems has been proposed to achieve this task. Unlike the existing approaches based on machine learning and statistical analysis, the proposed system treats traffic records as images and detection of DoS attacks as a computer vision problem. A multivariate correlation analysis approach is introduced to accurately depict network traffic records and to convert the records into their respective images. The images of network traffic records are used as the observed objects of our proposed DoS attack detection system, which is developed based on a widely used dissimilarity measure, namely Earth Mover's Distance (EMD). EMD takes cross-bin matching into account and provides a more accurate evaluation on the dissimilarity between distributions than some other well-known dissimilarity measures, such as Minkowski-form distance Lp and X² statistics. These unique merits facilitate our proposed system with effective detection capabilities. To evaluate the proposed EMD-based detection system, ten-fold cross-validations are conducted using KDD Cup 99 dataset and ISCX 2012 IDS Evaluation dataset. The results presented in the system evaluation section illustrate that our detection system can detect unknown DoS attacks and achieves 99.95 percent detection accuracy on KDD Cup 99 dataset and 90.12 percent detection accuracy on ISCX 2012 IDS evaluation dataset with processing capability of approximately 59,000 traffic records per second.

Tang, F, You, I, Tang, C & Yu, S 2015, 'A profiling based task scheduling approach for multicore network processors', Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 855-869.
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SummaryMulticore network processors have been playing an increasingly important role in computational processes, which emphasize on scalability and parallelism of the systems, in distributed environments especially in Internet‐based delay‐sensitive applications. It is an important but unsolved issue, however, to efficiently schedule tasks in network processors with multicore and multithread for improving the system throughput as much as possible. Profiling can gather runtime environment information and guide the compiler to optimize programs through scheduling tasks based on the runtime context. This paper proposes a profiling‐based task scheduling approach, targeting on improving the throughput of multicore network processor (Intel IXP) systems in the balanced pipeline way. In this work, we investigate a profiling‐based task scheduling framework, a task scheduling algorithm, and a set of performance models. Our task allocation scheme maps tasks onto the pipeline architecture and multiple threads of network processors in parallel, which incorporates the profiling context and global thread refinement. We evaluate our task scheduling algorithm by implementing representative network applications on the Intel IXP network processor. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm is able to schedule tasks in a balanced pipeline fashion and achieve the high throughput and data transmission rate. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Tang, KKW & Pradhan, B 2015, 'Converting Digital Number into Bathymetric Depth: a Case Study over Coastal and Shallow Water of Langkawi Island, Malaysia', FIG Working Week 2015, From the Wisdom of the Ages to the Challenges of the Modern World.

Tangaramvong, S, Wu, D & Gao, W 2015, 'Interval Limit Analysis of Rigid Perfectly Plastic Structures', Journal of Engineering Mechanics, vol. 141, no. 1, pp. 06014016-06014016.
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This article presents a novel extended limit analysis approach that determines the sharp maximum and minimum bounds on the collapse load of rigid perfectly plastic structures simultaneously subject to uncertain but bounded loading magnitudes and plastic material capacities. The governing formulation is cast as a linear programming problem with interval coefficients. Linearity is achieved by a suitable piecewise linearization of nonlinear yield surfaces. The proposed algorithm is founded on a characteristic formula concept and an appropriate interval arithmetic interpretation to transform the interval limit analysis problem into two deterministic linear programming problems that can be solved by any available linear programming solver.

Tangaramvong, S, Wu, D, Gao, W & Tin-Loi, F 2015, 'Response Bounds of Elastic Structures in the Presence of Interval Uncertainties', Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 141, no. 12, pp. 04015046-04015046.
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© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers. A mathematical-programming (MP)-based approach is proposed to directly determine the two extreme [(1) minimum, and (2) maximum] bounds of some static response quantity for elastic structures subject to the simultaneous application of interval applied forces and interval elastic material properties. Such a direct determination scheme reformulates the interval finite-element (FE) analysis into a pair of standard nonlinear programming (NLP) problems that can be solved by any available NLP code. Not only does the proposed method advantageously bypass any computationally expensive combinatorial searches to capture the response limits, but it can also directly accommodate any dependency in the interval data. Some examples are presented to illustrate the robustness and efficiency of the method.

Tasalloti, SMA, Indraratna, B, Rujikiatkamjorn, C, Heitor, A & Chiaro, G 2015, 'A Laboratory Study on the Shear Behavior of Mixtures of Coal Wash and Steel Furnace Slag as Potential Structural Fill', Geotechnical Testing Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 20140047-20140047.
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Tehrany, MS, Pradhan, B & Jebur, MN 2015, 'Flood susceptibility analysis and its verification using a novel ensemble support vector machine and frequency ratio method', Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 1149-1165.
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Tehrany, MS, Pradhan, B, Mansor, S & Ahmad, N 2015, 'Flood susceptibility assessment using GIS-based support vector machine model with different kernel types', CATENA, vol. 125, pp. 91-101.
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Templeton, DJ, Wright, ST, McManus, H, Lawrence, C, Russell, DB, Law, MG, Petoumenos, K & Observational, AHIV 2015, 'Antiretroviral treatment use, co-morbidities and clinical outcomes among Aboriginal participants in the Australian HIV Observational Database (AHOD)', BMC INFECTIOUS DISEASES, vol. 15.
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Teng, QF, Bai, JY, Zhu, JG & Guo, YG 2015, 'Sensorless model predictive torque control using sliding-mode model reference adaptive system observer for permanent magnet synchronous motor drive systems', Kongzhi Lilun Yu Yingyong/Control Theory and Applications, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 150-161.
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A novel sensorless model predictive torque control (MPTC) strategy is proposed for the three-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive system with sliding-mode model reference adaptive system (MRAS) observer. Making use of techniques of MRAS and sliding-mode, we design a sliding-mode MRAS observer to improve the estimated speed accuracy and enhance the system robustness. In order to reduce the torque and flux ripples and improve the control performance, we employ the MPTC strategy in the approach. Numerical simulation validates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme. In comparison with the sensorless MPTC involving MRAS observer, the proposed MPTC with sliding-model MRAS observer provides stronger robustness and achieves satisfactory torque and speed control. Meanwhile, comparing to the sensorless direct torque control (DTC) and sensorless field-oriented control (FOC), we find the proposed sensorless MPTC reduces the average inverter switching frequency and decreases the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the phase current, and thus improves the industrial reliability.

Teng, X, Yuan, X, Tang, Y & Shi, J 2015, 'Protective effects of remote ischemic preconditioning in isolated rat hearts', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE, vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 12575-12583.

Tennakoon, N, Indraratna, B, Nimbalkar, S & Sloan, SW 2015, 'Application of bounding surface plasticity concept for clay-fouled ballast under drained loading', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 70, pp. 96-105.
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Thakur, CS, Hamilton, TJ, Wang, R, Tapson, J & Schaik, AV 2015, 'A neuromorphic hardware framework based on population coding', Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, vol. 2015-September.
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In the biological nervous system, large neuronal populations workcollaboratively to encode sensory stimuli. These neuronal populations arecharacterised by a diverse distribution of tuning curves, ensuring that theentire range of input stimuli is encoded. Based on these principles, we havedesigned a neuromorphic system called a Trainable Analogue Block (TAB), whichencodes given input stimuli using a large population of neurons with aheterogeneous tuning curve profile. Heterogeneity of tuning curves is achievedusing random device mismatches in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) processand by adding a systematic offset to each hidden neuron. Here, we presentmeasurement results of a single test cell fabricated in a 65nm technology toverify the TAB framework. We have mimicked a large population of neurons byre-using measurement results from the test cell by varying offset. We thusdemonstrate the learning capability of the system for various regression tasks.The TAB system may pave the way to improve the design of analogue circuits forcommercial applications, by rendering circuits insensitive to random mismatchthat arises due to the manufacturing process.

Thakur, CS, Wang, RM, Afshar, S, Hamilton, TJ, Tapson, JC, Shamma, SA & van Schaik, A 2015, 'Sound stream segregation: a neuromorphic approach to solve the “cocktail party problem” in real-time', Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 9, no. SEP.
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© 2015 Thakur, Wang, Afshar, Hamilton, Tapson, Shamma and van Schaik. The human auditory system has the ability to segregate complex auditory scenes into a foreground component and a background, allowing us to listen to specific speech sounds from a mixture of sounds. Selective attention plays a crucial role in this process, colloquially known as the "cocktail party effect." It has not been possible to build a machine that can emulate this human ability in real-time. Here, we have developed a framework for the implementation of a neuromorphic sound segregation algorithm in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This algorithm is based on the principles of temporal coherence and uses an attention signal to separate a target sound stream from background noise. Temporal coherence implies that auditory features belonging to the same sound source are coherently modulated and evoke highly correlated neural response patterns. The basis for this form of sound segregation is that responses from pairs of channels that are strongly positively correlated belong to the same stream, while channels that are uncorrelated or anti-correlated belong to different streams. In our framework, we have used a neuromorphic cochlea as a frontend sound analyser to extract spatial information of the sound input, which then passes through band pass filters that extract the sound envelope at various modulation rates. Further stages include feature extraction and mask generation, which is finally used to reconstruct the targeted sound. Using sample tonal and speech mixtures, we show that our FPGA architecture is able to segregate sound sources in real-time. The accuracy of segregation is indicated by the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the segregated stream (90, 77, and 55 dB for simple tone, complex tone, and speech, respectively) as compared to the SNR of the mixture waveform (0 dB). This system may be easily extended for the segregation of complex speech signals, and may thus find vario...

Thakur, IS, Pandey, A & Ngo, HH 2015, 'Preface', Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 53, no. 6, p. 315.

Thakur, IS, Pandey, A & Ngo, HH 2015, 'SPECIAL ISSUE ON 'EMERGING TRENDS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY' Preface', INDIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY, vol. 53, no. 6, pp. 315-315.

Thankappan, R, Nguyen, TV, Srinivasan, SV, Vigneswaran, S, Kandasamy, J & Loganathan, P 2015, 'Removal of leather tanning agent syntan from aqueous solution using Fenton oxidation followed by GAC adsorption', JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY, vol. 21, pp. 483-488.
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The optimum conditions for the removal of leather tanning agent syntan from aqueous solution by Fenton oxidation at 22°C for an initial syntan concentration of 500 mg/L were pH 3, and concentrations of H2O2 and FeSO4 of 300mg/L and 500mg/L, respectively. Fenton oxidation followed by granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption in fixed-bed column resulted in more than 95% removal of dissolved organic carbon, compared to 55-70% removal by Fenton oxidation alone and GAC adsorption alone. The removal of individual organic fractions was also higher for the combined treatment compared to the Fenton oxidation alone.

That, ND & Ha, QP 2015, 'Discrete‐time sliding mode control with state bounding for linear systems with time‐varying delay and unmatched disturbances', IET Control Theory & Applications, vol. 9, no. 11, pp. 1700-1708.
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Thollander, P, Paramonova, S, Cornelis, E, Kimura, O, Trianni, A, Karlsson, M, Cagno, E, Morales, I & Jiménez Navarro, JP 2015, 'International study on energy end-use data among industrial SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and energy end-use efficiency improvement opportunities', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 104, pp. 282-296.
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Thomas, PS, Heide, K & Földvari, M 2015, 'Water and hydrogen release from perlites and opal', Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, vol. 120, no. 1, pp. 95-101.
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© 2014 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary The dehydration of two specimens of perlite from Pálháza (Hungary) and from Borovitza (Bulgaria) along with a specimen of Australian precious opal has been investigated by temperature controlled high-vacuum degassing experiments (DEGAS). Dehydration results in the loss of water over a wide range of temperatures due to the presence of both molecular and bound (silanol, Si–OH) water. A surprising observation is that hydrogen (H2) is also released. The hydrogen is observed to be released from both perlites and opal and both by diffusional processes and through the sudden explosive, bursting of inclusions which produce sharp spikes in the MS data. The origin of the hydrogen cannot be explained by a simple statistical distribution of the silanol species in the vitreous matrix; rather, it is more likely to be associated with an inverse-micellar decomposition of silanol species. Alternate sources of hydrogen such as meteoric waters or specific genetic origins based on the perlite or opal location and formation are discounted as the hydrogen release is found to be independent of CO2 and SO2 evolution.

Tian, L, Gao, Y, Fang, J & An, X 2015, 'Multi-objective optimisation of hybrid S-shaped rails under oblique impact loading', International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 137-137.
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Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. This paper aims at optimising the crashworthiness capabilities of hybrid S-shaped rails of an automotive body under oblique impact loading. In the optimisation process, geometrical parameters, material types and the length ratios of aluminium part to the whole length are taken as design variables. Kriging metamodel techniques are performed to predict the crashworthiness criteria of specific energy absorption (SEA) and peak crushing force (PCF). In the following multi-objective optimisation design (MOD), non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is adopted to obtain maximum SEA capacity and minimum PCF of hybrid S-shaped rails. It is found that the optimum design for a specific load angle does not necessarily guarantee the best solution when the load angle changes. More importantly, the change of weighting factor for each load angle affects the Pareto front of such MOD considerably, and thus selecting proper weights is of great importance in the crashworthiness design of hybrid S-shaped rails.

Tian, Y, Li, J, Yu, S & Huang, T 2015, 'Learning Complementary Saliency Priors for Foreground Object Segmentation in Complex Scenes', International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 111, no. 2, pp. 153-170.
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Tien Bui, D, Tran, CT, Pradhan, B, Revhaug, I & Seidu, R 2015, 'iGeoTrans – a novel iOS application for GPS positioning in geosciences', Geocarto International, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 1-16.
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Tien Bui, D, Tran, CT, Pradhan, B, Revhaug, I & Seidu, R 2015, 'iGeoTrans–a novel iOS application for GPS positioning in geosciences', Geocarto International, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 202-217.

Tijing, LD, Woo, YC, Choi, J-S, Lee, S, Kim, S-H & Shon, HK 2015, 'Fouling and its control in membrane distillation-A review', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 475, pp. 215-244.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging thermally-driven technology that poses a lot of promise in desalination, and water and wastewater treatment. Developments in membrane design and the use of alternative energy sources have provided much improvement in the viability of MD for different applications. However, fouling of membranes is still one of the major issues that hounds the long-term stability performance of MD. Membrane fouling is the accumulation of unwanted materials on the surface or inside the pores of a membrane that results to a detrimental effect on the overall performance of MD. If not addressed appropriately, it could lead to membrane damage, early membrane replacement or even shutdown of operation. Similar with other membrane separation processes, fouling of MD is still an unresolved problem. Due to differences in membrane structure and design, and operational conditions, the fouling formation mechanism in MD may be different from those of pressure-driven membrane processes. In order to properly address the problem of fouling, there is a need to understand the fouling formation and mechanism happening specifically for MD. This review details the different foulants and fouling mechanisms in the MD process, their possible mitigation and control techniques, and characterization strategies that can be of help in understanding and minimizing the fouling problem.

Tomamichel, M & Hayashi, M 2015, 'Operational Interpretation of Renyi Information Measures via Composite Hypothesis Testing Against Product and Markov Distributions', IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 1064-1082.
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We revisit the problem of asymmetric binary hypothesis testing against acomposite alternative hypothesis. We introduce a general framework to treatsuch problems when the alternative hypothesis adheres to certain axioms. Inthis case we find the threshold rate, the optimal error and strong converseexponents (at large deviations from the threshold) and the second orderasymptotics (at small deviations from the threshold). We apply our results tofind operational interpretations of various Renyi information measures. In casethe alternative hypothesis is comprised of bipartite product distributions, wefind that the optimal error and strong converse exponents are determined byvariations of Renyi mutual information. In case the alternative hypothesisconsists of tripartite distributions satisfying the Markov property, we findthat the optimal exponents are determined by variations of Renyi conditionalmutual information. In either case the relevant notion of Renyi mutualinformation depends on the precise choice of the alternative hypothesis. Assuch, our work also strengthens the view that different definitions of Renyimutual information, conditional entropy and conditional mutual information areadequate depending on the context in which the measures are used.

Tomamichel, M & Leverrier, A 2015, 'A largely self-contained and complete security proof for quantum key distribution', Quantum, vol. 1, pp. 14-52.
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In this work we present a security analysis for quantum key distribution,establishing a rigorous tradeoff between various protocol and securityparameters for a class of entanglement-based and prepare-and-measure protocols.The goal of this paper is twofold: 1) to review and clarify thestate-of-the-art security analysis based on entropic uncertainty relations, and2) to provide an accessible resource for researchers interested in a securityanalysis of quantum cryptographic protocols that takes into account finiteresource effects. For this purpose we collect and clarify several argumentsspread in the literature on the subject with the goal of making this treatmentlargely self-contained. More precisely, we focus on a class of prepare-and-measure protocols based onthe Bennett-Brassard (BB84) protocol as well as a class of entanglement-basedprotocols similar to the Bennett-Brassard-Mermin (BBM92) protocol. We carefullyformalize the different steps in these protocols, including randomization,measurement, parameter estimation, error correction and privacy amplification,allowing us to be mathematically precise throughout the security analysis. Westart from an operational definition of what it means for a quantum keydistribution protocol to be secure and derive simple conditions that serve assufficient condition for secrecy and correctness. We then derive and eventuallydiscuss tradeoff relations between the block length of the classicalcomputation, the noise tolerance, the secret key length and the securityparameters for our protocols. Our results significantly improve upon previouslyreported tradeoffs.

Tomamichel, M, Berta, M & Renes, JM 2015, 'Quantum Coding with Finite Resources', Nature Communications 7:11419 (2016), vol. 7.
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The quantum capacity of a memoryless channel is often used as a single figureof merit to characterize its ability to transmit quantum informationcoherently. The capacity determines the maximal rate at which we can codereliably over asymptotically many uses of the channel. We argue that thisasymptotic treatment is insufficient to the point of being irrelevant in thequantum setting where decoherence severely limits our ability to manipulatelarge quantum systems in the encoder and decoder. For all practical purposes weshould instead focus on the trade-off between three parameters: the rate of thecode, the number of coherent uses of the channel, and the fidelity of thetransmission. The aim is then to specify the region determined by allowedcombinations of these parameters. Towards this goal, we find approximate andexact characterizations of the region of allowed triplets for the qubitdephasing channel and for the erasure channel with classical post-processingassistance. In each case the region is parametrized by a second channelparameter, the quantum channel dispersion. In the process we also developseveral general inner (achievable) and outer (converse) bounds on the codingregion that are valid for all finite-dimensional quantum channels and can becomputed efficiently. Applied to the depolarizing channel, this allows us todetermine a lower bound on the number of coherent uses of the channel necessaryto witness super-additivity of the coherent information.

Tomc, E & Vassallo, AM 2015, 'Community Renewable Energy Networks in urban contexts: the need for a holistic approach', International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, vol. 8, pp. 31-42.
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Despite a ubiquitous interest in community energy, a review of the literature reveals a fragmented approach in which the technology elements that need to be considered for the effective existence of CREN are well understood but the social aspects have not yet been addressed to the same degree. Thus, while technology is no longer the limiting factor it used to be and there are mechanisms that can be used to deal with the social requirements, the fragmentation remains a challenge. The next necessary step in the exploration of community renewable energy lies in crafting a holistic approach that brings it all together to foster successful implementations. The aim of this paper is to define an urban CREN within this holistic outlook and review the literature that refers to the different aspects that need to be considered for project success in a greenfield setting. In conclusion, the authors suggest the reconceptualisation of CREN as an organisation to create a business model in which the technology and social aspects are approached in a transdisciplinary manner to achieve the effective creation and ongoing operation of such networks

Tomc, E & Vassallo, AM 2015, 'Community renewable energy networks in urban contexts: The need for a holistic approach', International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, vol. 8, pp. 31-42.
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Despite a ubiquitous interest in community energy, a review of the literature reveals a fragmented approach in which the technology elements that need to be considered for the effective existence of CREN are well understood but the social aspects have not yet been addressed to the same degree. Thus, while technology is no longer the limiting factor it used to be and there are mechanisms that can be used to deal with the social requirements, the fragmentation remains a challenge. The next necessary step in the exploration of community renewable energy lies in crafting a holistic approach that brings it all together to foster successful implementations. The aim of this paper is to define an urban CREN within this holistic outlook and review the literature that refers to the different aspects that need to be considered for project success in a greenfield setting. In conclusion, the authors suggest the reconceptualisation of CREN as an organisation to create a business model in which the technology and social aspects are approached in a transdisciplinary manner to achieve the effective creation and ongoing operation of such networks.

Torrejos, REC, Nisola, GM, Park, MJ, Shon, HK, Seo, JG, Koo, S & Chung, W-J 2015, 'Synthesis and characterization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes-supported dibenzo-14-crown-4 ether with proton ionizable carboxyl sidearm as Li+ adsorbents', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 264, pp. 89-98.
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Tran, NH, Gin, KY-H & Ngo, HH 2015, 'Fecal pollution source tracking toolbox for identification, evaluation and characterization of fecal contamination in receiving urban surface waters and groundwater', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 538, pp. 38-57.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The quality of surface waters/groundwater of a geographical region can be affected by anthropogenic activities, land use patterns and fecal pollution sources from humans and animals. Therefore, the development of an efficient fecal pollution source tracking toolbox for identifying the origin of the fecal pollution sources in surface waters/groundwater is especially helpful for improving management efforts and remediation actions of water resources in a more cost-effective and efficient manner. This review summarizes the updated knowledge on the use of fecal pollution source tracking markers for detecting, evaluating and characterizing fecal pollution sources in receiving surface waters and groundwater. The suitability of using chemical markers (i.e. fecal sterols, fluorescent whitening agents, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and artificial sweeteners) and/or microbial markers (e.g. F + RNA coliphages, enteric viruses, and host-specific anaerobic bacterial 16S rDNA genetic markers) for tracking fecal pollution sources in receiving water bodies is discussed. In addition, this review also provides a comprehensive approach, which is based on the detection ratios (DR), detection frequencies (DF), and fate of potential microbial and chemical markers. DR and DF are considered as the key criteria for selecting appropriate markers for identifying and evaluating the impacts of fecal contamination in surface waters/groundwater.

Tran, NH, Ngo, HH, Urase, T & Gin, KY-H 2015, 'A critical review on characterization strategies of organic matter for wastewater and water treatment processes', Bioresource Technology, vol. 193, pp. 523-533.
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Tran, T & Ha, QP 2015, 'Dependable control systems with Internet of Things', ISA Transactions, vol. 59, pp. 303-313.
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Tran, TS, Center, JR, Seibel, MJ, Eisman, JA, Kushnir, MM, Rockwood, AL & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Relationship between Serum Testosterone and Fracture Risk in Men: A Comparison of RIA and LC-MS/MS', Clinical Chemistry, vol. 61, no. 9, pp. 1182-1190.
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Abstract BACKGROUND Serum testosterone can be measured by LC-MS/MS and RIA. We investigated whether the testosterone–fracture relationship was affected by the method of measurement. METHODS We measured total testosterone (TT) by LC-MS/MS (TTLC-MS/MS) and RIA (TTRIA) in serum samples collected from 602 men whose incident fractures had been continuously ascertained by x-ray reports from 1989 to 2010. We measured bone mineral density (BMD) by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. The association between TT and fracture risk was assessed by the Cox proportional hazards model, taking into account the effect of age and BMD. RESULTS Mean TTLC-MS/MS was higher than TTRIA by 27 ng/dL (95% CI 13–41). The concordance correlation coefficient between TTLC-MS/MS and TTRIA was 0.72 (95% CI 0.68–0.76). The Deming regression equation linking the 2 measurements was ln(TTLC-MS/MS + 10) = 0.87 + 0.87 × ln(TTRIA + 10). The hazard ratio of fracture per SD decrease in TT was 1.32 (95% CI 1.12–1.54) for TTLC-MS/MS and 1.23 (1.06–1.43) for TTRIA. The correlation between predicted probabilities of fracture by TTLC-MS/MS and TTRIA was r = 0.96, with the mean difference being 0.01% (95% CI −6.1% to 6.2%). Slightly more patients were classified as having hypogonadism if TTRIA was used (29% vs 26%). CONCLUSIONS The concordance between LC-MS/MS and RIA in the measurement of serum TT was moderate. Moreover, the magnitude of association between testosterone and fracture risk in older me...

Tran, TT, Bray, K, Ford, MJ, Toth, M & Aharonovich, I 2015, 'Quantum Emission From Hexagonal Boron Nitride Monolayers', 2016 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, CLEO 2016, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 37-41.
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Atomically thin van der Waals crystals have recently enabled new scientificand technological breakthroughs across a variety of disciplines in materialsscience, nanophotonics and physics. However, non-classical photon emission fromthese materials has not been achieved to date. Here we report room temperaturequantum emission from hexagonal boron nitride nanoflakes. The single photonemitter exhibits a combination of superb quantum optical properties at roomtemperature that include the highest brightness reported in the visible part ofthe spectrum, narrow line width, absolute photo-stability, a short excitedstate lifetime and a high quantum efficiency. Density functional theorymodeling suggests that the emitter is the antisite nitrogen vacancy defect thatis present in single and multi-layer hexagonal boron nitride. Our resultsconstitute the unprecedented potential of van der Waals crystals fornanophotonics, optoelectronics and quantum information processing.

Tran, TT, Fang, J, Zhang, H, Rath, P, Bray, K, Sandstrom, R, Shimoni, O, Toth, M & Aharonovich, I 2015, 'Facile Self-Assembly of Quantum Plasmonic Circuit Components', Adv. Mater., vol. 27, no. 27, pp. 4048-4053.
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Efficient coupling between solid state quantum emitters and plasmonicwaveguides is important for the realization of integrated circuits for quantuminformation, communication and sensing. However, realization of plasmoniccircuits is still scarce, particularly due to challenges associated withaccurate positioning of quantum emitters near plasmonic resonators. Currentpathways for the construction of plasmonic circuits involve cumbersome andcostly methods such as scanning atomic force microscopy or mechanicalmanipulation, where individual elements are physically relocated using thescanning tip. Here, we introduce a simple, fast and cost effective chemicalself-assembly method for the attachment of two primary components of apractical plasmonic circuit: a single photon emitter and a waveguide. Ourmethod enables coupling of nanodiamonds with a single quantum emitter (thenitrogen-vacancy (NV) center) onto the terminal of a silver nanowire, by simplyvarying the concentration of ascorbic acid (AA) in a reaction solution. The AAconcentration is used to control the extent of agglomeration, and can beoptimised so as to cause preferential, selective activation of the tips of thenanowires. The nanowire-nanodiamond structures show efficient plasmoniccoupling of fluorescence emission from single NV centers into surface plasmonpolariton (SPP) modes, evidenced by a more than two-fold reduction influorescence lifetime and an increase in fluorescence intensity.

Tran, VS, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Zhang, J, Liang, S, Ton-That, C & Zhang, X 2015, 'Typical low cost biosorbents for adsorptive removal of specific organic pollutants from water', BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 182, pp. 353-363.
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Specific organic pollutants (SOPs) such as phenolic compounds, PAHs, organic pesticides, and organic herbicides cause health and environmental problems due to their excessive toxic properties and poor biodegradability. Low-cost biosorbents are considered as a promising alternative for conventional adsorbents to remove SOPs from water. These materials have several advantages such as high sorption capacities, good modifiability and recoverability, insensitivity to toxic substances, simple operation in the treatment processes. However, previous reports on various types of biosorbents for removing SOPs are still moderately fragmented. Hence, this paper provides a comprehensive review on using typical low-cost biosorbents obtained from lignocellulose and chitin/chitosan for SOPs adsorption. Especially, their characteristics, biosorption mechanism together with utilization for eliminating SOPs are presented and discussed. The paper also gives a critical view regarding future applications of low-cost biosorbents in SOPs-contaminated water treatment.

Truong, BCQ, Tuan, HD, Fitzgerald, AJ, Wallace, VP & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'A Dielectric Model of Human Breast Tissue in Terahertz Regime', IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 699-707.
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The double Debye model has been used to understand the dielectric response of different types of biological tissues at terahertz (THz) frequencies but fails in accurately simulating human breast tissue. This leads to limited knowledge about the structure, dynamics, and macroscopic behavior of breast tissue, and hence, constrains the potential of THz imaging in breast cancer detection. The first goal of this paper is to propose a new dielectric model capable of mimicking the spectra of human breast tissue's complex permittivity in THz regime. Namely, a non-Debye relaxation model is combined with a single Debye model to produce a mixture model of human breast tissue. A sampling gradient algorithm of nonsmooth optimization is applied to locate the optimal fitting solution. Samples of healthy breast tissue and breast tumor are used in the simulation to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Our simulation demonstrates exceptional fitting quality in all cases. The second goal is to confirm the potential of using the parameters of the proposed dielectric model to distinguish breast tumor from healthy breast tissue, especially fibrous tissue. Statistical measures are employed to analyze the discrimination capability of the model parameters while support vector machines are applied to assess the possibility of using the combinations of these parameters for higher classification accuracy. The obtained analysis confirms the classification potential of these features.

Truong, BCQ, Tuan, HD, Wallace, VP, Fitzgerald, AJ & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'The Potential of the Double Debye Parameters to Discriminate Between Basal Cell Carcinoma and Normal Skin', IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 990-998.
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� 2015 IEEE. The potential of terahertz imaging for improving the efficiency of Mohs's micrographic surgery in terms of tumor margin detection was previously studied. Thanks to high water content of human skin, its dielectric response to terahertz radiation can be described by the double Debye model which uses five parameters to fit experimental data. Skin tumors typically have a higher water content than normal tissues do, and this should be apparent in the parameters. The goal of this paper is to apply statistical methods to these parameters to test their power to differentiate skin cancer from normal tissue. Based on the prediction accuracy estimated using a cross-validation method, we found the best classifier was the static permittivity at low frequency (εs). By combining the most relevant parameters, we obtained a classification accuracy of 95.7%, confirming the classification capability of the parameters, thereby supporting their application to improve terahertz imaging for the purpose of skin cancer delineation.

Tu, C & Lee, JE-Y 2015, 'A semi-analytical modeling approach for laterally-vibrating thin-film piezoelectric-on-silicon micromechanical resonators', Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 115020-115020.
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Tu, KL, Chivas, AR & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Chemical cleaning effects on properties and separation efficiency of an RO membrane', Membrane Water Treatment, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 141-160.
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Tuan, HD, Savkin, A, Nguyen, TN & Nguyen, HT 2015, 'Decentralised model predictive control with stability constraints and its application in process control', Journal of Process Control, vol. 26, pp. 73-89.
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This paper presents a novel decentralised model predictive control for a plant consisting of interconnected systems. A constructive technique for online stabilisation that is applicable to the model predictive controllers (MPC) is developed. The plant-wise stability is achievable by the newly introduced asymptotically positive realness constraint (APRC) for MPC. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the presented APRC.

Turner, BD, Henley, BJ, Sleap, SB & Sloan, SW 2015, 'Kinetic model selection and the Hill model in geochemistry', International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 12, no. 8, pp. 2545-2558.
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Tursky, ML, Beck, D, Thoms, JAI, Huang, Y, Kumari, A, Unnikrishnan, A, Knezevic, K, Evans, K, Richards, LA, Lee, E, Morris, J, Goldberg, L, Izraeli, S, Wong, JWH, Olivier, J, Lock, RB, MacKenzie, KL & Pimanda, JE 2015, 'Overexpression of ERG in cord blood progenitors promotes expansion and recapitulates molecular signatures of high ERG leukemias', Leukemia, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 819-827.
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Uemura, Y, Kajiwara, Y, Zhou, J, Chen, F & Shimakawa, H 2015, 'Estimating Human Physical States from Chronological Gait Features Acquired with RFID Technology', Sensors & Transducers, vol. 194, pp. 76-76.

ur Rehman, Z, Hussain, OK, Hussain, FK, Chang, E & Dillon, T 2015, 'User-side QoS forecasting and management of cloud services', World Wide Web, vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 1677-1716.
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Urtasun, A & Lu, DD-C 2015, 'Control of a Single-Switch Two-Input Buck Converter for MPPT of Two PV Strings', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 7051-7060.
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© 2015 IEEE. In this paper, the two-input buck converter is proposed as the dc/dc stage for photovoltaic (PV) cascaded converters. This converter is attractive for this application because it is cost effective and reliable and can achieve dual maximum power point tracking (MPPT) with only one power transistor. However, due to the simplified and integrated structure, the nonlinear characteristics of the converter and the two PV arrays complicate the control. By means of a small-signal modeling, the control theme of the two PV voltages is formulated, and the effect of the nonlinearities is presented. It is shown that, while fast voltage dynamics are achieved for the first input, the second-input voltage response depends on the second-stage converter control. Simulation and experimental results are reported to validate the theoretical analysis, showing the dual MPPT capability.

Vakhshouri, B & Nejadi, S 2015, 'Predicition Of Compressive Strength In Light-Weight Self-Compacting Concrete By ANFIS Analytical Model', Archives of Civil Engineering, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 53-72.
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AbstractLight-weight Self-Compacting Concrete (LWSCC) might be the answer to the increasing construction requirements of slenderer and more heavily reinforced structural elements. However there are limited studies to prove its ability in real construction projects. In conjunction with the traditional methods, artificial intelligent based modeling methods have been applied to simulate the non-linear and complex behavior of concrete in the recent years. Twenty one laboratory experimental investigations on the mechanical properties of LWSCC; published in recent 12 years have been analyzed in this study. The collected information is used to investigate the relationship between compressive strength, elasticity modulus and splitting tensile strength in LWSCC. Analytically proposed model in ANFIS is verified by multi factor linear regression analysis. Comparing the estimated results, ANFIS analysis gives more compatible results and is preferred to estimate the properties of LWSCC.

Valiente, D, Ghaffari Jadidi, M, Valls Miró, J, Gil, A & Reinoso, O 2015, 'Information-based view initialization in visual SLAM with a single omnidirectional camera', Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 72, pp. 93-104.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This paper presents a novel mechanism to initiate new views within the map building process for an EKF-based visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) approach using omnidirectional images. In presence of non-linearities, the EKF is very likely to compromise the final estimation. Particularly, the omnidirectional observation model induces non-linear errors, thus it becomes a potential source of uncertainty. To deal with this issue we propose a novel mechanism for view initialization which accounts for information gain and losses more efficiently. The main outcome of this contribution is the reduction of the map uncertainty and thus the higher consistency of the final estimation. Its basis relies on a Gaussian Process to infer an information distribution model from sensor data. This model represents feature points existence probabilities and their information content analysis leads to the proposed view initialization scheme. To demonstrate the suitability and effectiveness of the approach we present a series of real data experiments conducted with a robot equipped with a camera sensor and map model solely based on omnidirectional views. The results reveal a beneficial reduction on the uncertainty but also on the error in the pose and the map estimate.

van Duren, I, Voinov, A, Arodudu, O & Firrisa, MT 2015, 'Where to produce rapeseed biodiesel and why? Mapping European rapeseed energy efficiency', Renewable Energy, vol. 74, pp. 49-59.
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van Halteren, A & Gay, V 2015, 'Continuous Digital Health', IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 8-9.
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Vasauskaite, J & Gill, AQ 2015, 'Rethinking enterprise architecture for sustainable energy system development', Journal of Electronic Science and Technology, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 212-220.
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The development of a sustainable energy system throughout an enterprise is a complex task, which requires an agile holistic approach.Such an approach needs to include a variety of objectives including energy strategy formation and strategic decision-making, which are directly related to the analysis and management of the main areas of sustainable development: The economic, technological, environmental, and social.These multidimensional requirements of sustainability are often difficult to achieve within the enterprise, because these aspects are interrelated and influenced by various internal and external environment factors. This paper first reviews the main challenges for an energy system, and then demonstrates how a strategic agile enterprise architecture driven approach could effectively guide the sustainable energy system development.The study presented in this paper provides a holistic approach that contributes to the advancement and usage of literature dealing with issues of sustainable energy system development and agile enterprise architecture, which has not been discussed before to any great extent.

Vazquez, S, Marquez, A, Aguilera, R, Quevedo, D, Leon, JI & Franquelo, LG 2015, 'Predictive Optimal Switching Sequence Direct Power Control for Grid-Connected Power Converters', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 2010-2020.
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© 1982-2012 IEEE. Grid-connected power converters play a key role in several applications such as the integration of renewable energy sources and motor drives. For this reason, the development of high performance control strategies for this particular class of power converters has increasingly attracted the interest of both academic and industry researchers. This paper presents the predictive optimal switching sequence (OSS) direct power control (DPC) (OSS-DPC) algorithm for grid-connected converters. The OSS-DPC method belongs to the predictive-DPC family and provides the desired power references by calculating globally OSSs. To address computational and implementation issues, an efficient control algorithm, named reduced OSS-DPC, is introduced. The implementation of the proposed control strategy in a standard DSP is evaluated on a two-level power converter prototype working as a STATCOM. Experimental results show the algorithm's potential to provide high performance during both transient and steady states.

Vazquez, S, Marquez, A, Aguilera, R, Quevedo, D, Leon, JI & Franquelo, LG 2015, 'Predictive Optimal Switching Sequence Direct Power Control for Grid-Connected Power Converters', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 2010-2020.
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Versendaal, J & Merigó, JM 2015, 'Service business track at INBAM, Barcelona, 2014 “Service Design and Technology”', Service Business, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 183-184.
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Verstraete, D, Gong, A, Lu, DD-C & Palmer, JL 2015, 'Experimental investigation of the role of the battery in the AeroStack hybrid, fuel-cell-based propulsion system for small unmanned aircraft systems', International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 1598-1606.
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Copyright © 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Electric propulsion is attractive for small unmanned aircraft systems; and advanced hybrid powerplants combining a fuel cell and battery offer operational advantages, compared with batteries alone. However, a detailed understanding of the performance of the powerplant, the role of the battery, and the system's power management are required for proper integration. This article describes a series of tests used to characterise the battery and power-management board of Horizon Energy Systems' AeroStack hybrid, fuel-cell-based powertrain. The results demonstrate that the battery plays a crucial role in the response to dynamic load changes and that this system response is strongly influenced by the battery's capacity and current rating. The results also demonstrate that the power-management board of the AeroStack only recharges the battery to at most 70% of its capacity and charging can take up to nearly 2 h. As the recharging requires fuel consumption by the fuel cell, a compromise is needed between the boost capability of the battery and the total mission endurance. Crown

Vieira, GC, Chockalingam, S, Melegh, Z, Greenhough, A, Malik, S, Szemes, M, Park, JH, Kaidi, A, Zhou, L, Catchpoole, D, Morgan, R, Bates, DO, Gabb, PD & Malik, K 2015, 'LGR5 regulates pro-survival MEK/ERK and proliferative Wnt/β-catenin signalling in neuroblastoma', Oncotarget, vol. 6, no. 37, pp. 40053-40067.
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LGR5 is a marker of normal and cancer stem cells in various tissues where it functions as a receptor for R-spondins and increases canonical Wnt signalling amplitude. Here we report that LGR5 is also highly expressed in a subset of high grade neuroblastomas. Neuroblastoma is a clinically heterogenous paediatric cancer comprising a high proportion of poor prognosis cases (~40%) which are frequently lethal. Unlike many cancers, Wnt pathway mutations are not apparent in neuroblastoma, although previous microarray analyses have implicated deregulated Wnt signalling in high-risk neuroblastoma. We demonstrate that LGR5 facilitates high Wnt signalling in neuroblastoma cell lines treated with Wnt3a and R-spondins, with SK-N-BE(2)-C, SK-N-NAS and SH-SY5Y cell-lines all displaying strong Wnt induction. These lines represent MYCN-amplified, NRAS and ALK mutant neuroblastoma subtypes respectively. Wnt3a/R-Spondin treatment also promoted nuclear translocation of β-catenin, increased proliferation and activation of Wnt target genes. Strikingly, short-interfering RNA mediated knockdown of LGR5 induces dramatic Wnt-independent apoptosis in all three cell-lines, accompanied by greatly diminished phosphorylation of mitogen/extracellular signal-regulated kinases (MEK1/2) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2), and an increase of BimEL, an apoptosis facilitator downstream of ERK. Akt signalling is also decreased by a Rictor dependent, PDK1-independent mechanism. LGR5 expression is cell cycle regulated and LGR5 depletion triggers G1 cell-cycle arrest, increased p27 and decreased phosphorylated retinoblastoma protein. Our study therefore characterises new cancer-associated pathways regulated by LGR5, and suggest that targeting of LGR5 may be of therapeutic benefit for neuroblastomas with diverse etiologies, as well as other cancers expressing high LGR5.

Vigneswaran, S & Kwon, D-Y 2015, 'Effect of ionic strength and permeate flux on membrane fouling: Analysis of forces acting on particle deposit and cake formation', KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 1604-1611.
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© 2015, Korean Society of Civil Engineers and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. In Cross-Flow Microfiltration (CFMF), suspended particles deposit to form a cake layer on the membrane surface, which provides a resistance to permeate flow. The cake resistance, which plays an important role on the performance of CFMF, is mainly determined by the packing porosity of the cake and, the physical and chemical properties of particles. This study aimed at understanding the porosity and the specific filtration resistance of the cake for a given condition. These properties have been studied using experiments under a constant permeate flux. Factors such as permeate flux and ionic strength were investigated in terms of the particles deposition and cake formation. This study also adopted a force balance model to predict the deposit rate of particles and then compare with the experimental results. Inter-particle forces (electric double layer repulsion force and Van der Waals attraction force) were incorporated into the calculation of cake structure (cake porosity and specific resistance) together with the equilibrium condition of hydrodynamic forces. The experimental results showed that the higher the permeate flux led to the greater amount of particles deposit and the denser structure of cake. The porosity of cake decreased with the increase in ionic strength (0∼0.01M) and then increased sharply afterwards (0.01∼0.1M). The hydrodynamic force balance model estimated well the tendency of variation in cake structure depending on the ionic strength.

VIZUETE-LUCIANO, E, MERIGÓ, JM, GIL-LAFUENTE, AM & BORIA-REVERTER, S 2015, 'DECISION MAKING IN THE ASSIGNMENT PROCESS BY USING THE HUNGARIAN ALGORITHM WITH OWA OPERATORS', Technological and Economic Development of Economy, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 684-704.
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Assignment processes permit to coordinate two set of variables so each variable of the first set is connected to another variable of the second set. This paper develops a new assignment algorithm by using a wide range of aggregation operators in the Hungarian algorithm. A new process based on the use of the ordered weighted averaging distance (OWAD) operator and the induced OWAD (IOWAD) operator in the Hungarian algorithm is introduced. We refer to it as the Hungarian algorithm with the OWAD operator (HAOWAD) and the Hungarian algorithm with the IOWAD operator (HAIOWAD). The main advantage of this approach is that we can provide a parameterized family of aggregation operators between the minimum and the maximum. Thus, the information can be represented in a more complete way. Furthermore, we also present a general framework by using generalized and quasi-arithmetic means. Therefore, we can consider a wide range of particular cases including the Euclidean and the Minkowski distance. The paper ends with a practical application of the new approach in a financial decision making problem regarding the assignment of investments.

Vo, PT, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Zhou, JL, Listowski, A, Du, B, Wei, Q & Bui, XT 2015, 'Stormwater quality management in rail transportation - Past, present and future', SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 512, pp. 353-363.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Railways currently play an important role in sustainable transportation systems, owing to their substantial carrying capacity, environmental friendliness and land-saving advantages. Although total pollutant emissions from railway systems are far less than that of automobile vehicles, the pollution from railway operations should not be underestimated. To date, both scientific and practical papers dealing with stormwater management for rail tracks have solely focused on its drainage function. Unlike roadway transport, the potential of stormwater pollution from railway operations is currently mishandled. There have been very few studies into the impact of its operations on water quality. Hence, upon the realisation on the significance of nonpoint source pollution, stormwater management priorities should have been re-evaluated. This paper provides an examination of past and current practices of stormwater management in the railway industry, potential sources of stormwater pollution, obstacles faced in stormwater management and concludes with strategies for future management directions.

Voinov, A, Arodudu, O, van Duren, I, Morales, J & Qin, L 2015, 'Estimating the potential of roadside vegetation for bioenergy production', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 102, pp. 213-225.
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vom Stein, N, Sick, N & Leker, J 2015, 'How to measure technological distance in collaborations — The case of electric mobility', Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 97, pp. 154-167.
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© 2014 Elsevier Inc. Innovation collaborations experienced a substantial growth during recent decades, so that research interest in factors contributing to successful collaboration increased. One proposed success factor is technological distance, which determines the probability of receiving new knowledge from a partner as well as the ability of absorbing it. The methodology for measuring this distance is receiving broad attention in current literature. Therefore, we compare well-established measuring methods based on Euclidian distances with the recently introduced method of the min-complement distance.Collaborations along the entire value chain are seen as a way to overcome technological deficiencies associated with battery development for electric mobility, which implies collaboration of partners with different technological distances. Hence, we specifically focus on cross-industry collaborations comprising partners from the chemical and automobile industries.Our results show that the methodology used highlights different aspects of the approximation of technological distance in the examined collaborations. The use of the min-complement distance seems to be reasonable due to the intuitive property of the independence of irrelevant patent classes in cross-industry collaboration settings.

Wakil, MA, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Atabani, AE & Rizwanul Fattah, IM 2015, 'Influence of biodiesel blending on physicochemical properties and importance of mathematical model for predicting the properties of biodiesel blend', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 94, pp. 51-67.
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Walker, RTR & Indraratna, B 2015, 'Application of spectral Galerkin method for multilayer consolidation of soft soils stabilised by vertical drains or stone columns', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 69, pp. 529-539.
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Wang, C, Dong, X, Zhou, F, Cao, L & Chi, C-H 2015, 'Coupled Attribute Similarity Learning on Categorical Data', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 781-797.
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© 2012 IEEE. Attribute independence has been taken as a major assumption in the limited research that has been conducted on similarity analysis for categorical data, especially unsupervised learning. However, in real-world data sources, attributes are more or less associated with each other in terms of certain coupling relationships. Accordingly, recent works on attribute dependency aggregation have introduced the co-occurrence of attribute values to explore attribute coupling, but they only present a local picture in analyzing categorical data similarity. This is inadequate for deep analysis, and the computational complexity grows exponentially when the data scale increases. This paper proposes an efficient data-driven similarity learning approach that generates a coupled attribute similarity measure for nominal objects with attribute couplings to capture a global picture of attribute similarity. It involves the frequency-based intra-coupled similarity within an attribute and the inter-coupled similarity upon value co-occurrences between attributes, as well as their integration on the object level. In particular, four measures are designed for the inter-coupled similarity to calculate the similarity between two categorical values by considering their relationships with other attributes in terms of power set, universal set, joint set, and intersection set. The theoretical analysis reveals the equivalent accuracy and superior efficiency of the measure based on the intersection set, particularly for large-scale data sets. Intensive experiments of data structure and clustering algorithms incorporating the coupled dissimilarity metric achieve a significant performance improvement on state-of-the-art measures and algorithms on 13 UCI data sets, which is confirmed by the statistical analysis. The experiment results show that the proposed coupled attribute similarity is generic, and can effectively and efficiently capture the intrinsic and global interactions ...

Wang, C, Du, W, Su, QP, Zhu, M, Feng, P, Li, Y, Zhou, Y, Mi, N, Zhu, Y, Jiang, D, Zhang, S, Zhang, Z, Sun, Y & Yu, L 2015, 'Dynamic tubulation of mitochondria drives mitochondrial network formation', Cell Research, vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 1108-1120.
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Mitochondria form networks. Formation of mitochondrial networks is important for maintaining mitochondrial DNA integrity and interchanging mitochondrial material, whereas disruption of the mitochondrial network affects mitochondrial functions. According to the current view, mitochondrial networks are formed by fusion of individual mitochondria. Here, we report a new mechanism for formation of mitochondrial networks through KIF5B-mediated dynamic tubulation of mitochondria. We found that KIF5B pulls thin, highly dynamic tubules out of mitochondria. Fusion of these dynamic tubules, which is mediated by mitofusins, gives rise to the mitochondrial network. We further demonstrated that dynamic tubulation and fusion is sufficient for mitochondrial network formation, by reconstituting mitochondrial networks in vitro using purified fusion-competent mitochondria, recombinant KIF5B, and polymerized microtubules. Interestingly, KIF5B only controls network formation in the peripheral zone of the cell, indicating that the mitochondrial network is divided into subzones, which may be constructed by different mechanisms. Our data not only uncover an essential mechanism for mitochondrial network formation, but also reveal that different parts of the mitochondrial network are formed by different mechanisms.

Wang, C, He, X, Tong, L, Luo, Q, Li, Y, Song, Q, Lv, X, Shang, Y, Peng, Q & Li, J 2015, 'Tensile failure mechanisms of individual junctions assembled by two carbon nanotubes', Composites Science and Technology, vol. 110, pp. 159-165.
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Wang, G, Li, Y, Wang, P, Liang, H, Cui, M, Zhu, M, Guo, L, Su, Q, Sun, Y, McNutt, MA & Yin, Y 2015, 'PTEN regulates RPA1 and protects DNA replication forks', Cell Research, vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 1189-1204.
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Wang, G-G, Gandomi, AH & Alavi, AH 2015, 'Study of Lagrangian and Evolutionary Parameters in Krill Herd Algorithm', Adaptation, Learning, and Optimization, vol. 18, pp. 111-128.
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© 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Krill Herd (KH) is a novel swarm-based intelligent optimization method developed through the idealization of the krill swarm. In the basic KH method, all the movement parameters used are originated from real nature-driven data found in the literature. The parameter setting based on such data is not necessarily the best selection. In this work, a systematic method is presented for the selection of the best parameter setting for the KH algorithm through an extensive study of arrays of high-dimensional benchmark problems. An important finding is that the best performance of KH can be obtained by setting effective coefficient of the krill individual (Cbest), food coefficient (Cfood), maximum diffusion speed (Dmax), crossover probability (Cr) and mutation probability (Mu) parameters to 4.00, 4.25, 0.014, 0.225, and 0.025, respectively. This finding would eliminate the concerns regarding the optimal tuning of the KH algorithm for its most future applications.

Wang, H, Huang, S, Khosoussi, K, Frese, U, Dissanayake, G & Liu, B 2015, 'Dimensionality reduction for point feature SLAM problems with spherical covariance matrices', Automatica, vol. 51, pp. 149-157.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The main contribution of this paper is the dimensionality reduction for multiple-step 2D point feature based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), which is an extension of our previous work on one-step SLAM (Wang et al.; 2013). It has been proved that SLAM with multiple robot poses and a number of point feature positions as variables is equivalent to an optimization problem with only the robot orientations as variables, when the associated uncertainties can be described using spherical covariance matrices. This reduces the dimension of original problem from 3m+2n to m only (where m is the number of poses and n is the number of features). The optimization problem after dimensionality reduction can be solved numerically using the unconstrained optimization algorithms. While dimensionality reduction may not provide computational saving for all nonlinear optimization problems, for some SLAM problems we can achieve benefits such as improvement on time consumption and convergence. For the special case of two-step SLAM when the orientation information from odometry is not incorporated, an algorithm that can guarantee to obtain the globally optimal solution (in the maximum likelihood sense) is derived. Simulation and experimental datasets are used to verify the equivalence between the reduced nonlinear optimization problem and the original full optimization problem, as well as the proposed new algorithm for obtaining the globally optimal solution for two-step SLAM.

Wang, H, Liu, RP, Ni, W, Chen, W & Collings, IB 2015, 'VANET Modeling and Clustering Design Under Practical Traffic, Channel and Mobility Conditions', IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 870-881.
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© 1972-2012 IEEE. In Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), vehicles driving along highways can be grouped into clusters to facilitate communication. The design of the clusters, e.g., size and geographical span, has significant impacts on communication quality. Such design is affected by the Media Access Control (MAC) operations at the Data Link layer, the wireless channel conditions at the Physical layer, and the mobility of the vehicles. Previous works investigated these effects separately. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis that integrates the three important factors into one model. In particular, we model an unsaturated VANET cluster with a Markov chain by introducing an idle state. The wireless channel fading and vehicle mobility are integrated by explicitly deriving the joint distribution of inter-vehicle distances. Closed-form expressions of network performance measures, such as packet loss probability and system throughput, are derived. Our model, validated by extensive simulations, is able to accurately characterize VANET performance. Our analysis reveals intrinsic dependencies between cluster size, vehicle speed, traffic demand, and window size, as well as their impacts on the overall throughput and packet loss of the cluster. Performance evaluation results demonstrate the practical value of the proposed model in providing guidelines for VANET design and management.

Wang, J, Yang, J, Zhang, H, Guo, W & Ngo, H-H 2015, 'Feasibility study on magnetic enhanced flocculation for mitigating membrane fouling', Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 26, pp. 37-45.
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During coagulation/flocculation-membrane filtration (CF-MF) process, membrane fouling was alleviated more significantly through magnetic enhanced flocculation-membrane filtration (MEF-MF) in the presence of ferromagnetic seeds in coagulants. Porous cake layer with flocs of large size was able to alleviate decline rate of membrane flux. Foulant analysis proved that magnetic enhanced flocculation (MEF) pretreatment was more efficient for the reductions of low and mid-molecular weight (MW) organic structures than CF-MF. Biopolymers with high molecular weight were also effectively removed before filtration. Overall, MEF-MF could provide a novel alternative approach to mitigate membrane fouling for surface water treatment.

Wang, J, Yang, S, Guo, W, Ngo, H-H, Jia, H, Yang, J, Zhang, H & Zhang, X 2015, 'Characterization of fouling layers for in-line coagulation membrane fouling by apparent zeta potential', RSC Advances, vol. 5, no. 128, pp. 106087-106093.
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This study investigated the apparent zeta potential of fouled membranes for in-line coagulation membrane fouling monitoring in micro-polluted water treatment.

Wang, Q, Xie, H, Zhang, J, Liang, S, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Liu, C, Zhao, C & Li, H 2015, 'Effect of plant harvesting on the performance of constructed wetlands during winter: radial oxygen loss and microbial characteristics', Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol. 22, no. 10, pp. 7476-7484.
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© 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. The aboveground tissue of plants is important for providing roots with constant photosynthetic resources. However, the aboveground biomass is usually harvested before winter to maintain the permanent removal of nutrients. In this work, the effects of harvest on plants’ involvement in oxygen input as well as in microbial abundance and activity were investigated in detail. Three series of constructed wetlands with integrated plants (“unharvested”), harvested plants (“harvested”), and fully cleared plants (“cleared”) were set up. Better performance was found in the unharvested units, with the radial oxygen loss (ROL) rates ranging from 0.05 to 0.59 μmol O2/h/plant, followed by the harvested units that had relatively lower ROL rates (0.01 to 0.52 μmol O2/h/plant). The cleared units had the lowest removal efficiency, which had no rhizome resources from the plants. The microbial population and activity were highest in the unharvested units, followed by the harvested and cleared units. Results showed that bacterial abundances and enhanced microbial activity were ten times higher on root surfaces compared with sands. These results indicate that late autumn harvesting of the aboveground biomass exhibited negative effects on plant ROL as well as on the microbial population and activity during the following winter.

Wang, R, Xu, X, Zhang, Y, Chang, Z, Sun, Z & Dong, W-F 2015, 'Functionalized ZnO@TiO₂nanorod array film loaded with ZnIn_0.25Cu_0.02S_1.395solid-solution: synthesis, characterization and enhanced visible light driven water splitting', Nanoscale, vol. 7, no. 25, pp. 11082-11092.
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We have designed a novel semiconductor nanorod film, sensitized with a polymetallic sulfide, for solar energy conversion. Our results verify that it could be conveniently used in micro-nano photoelectronic devices.

Wang, RM, Hamilton, TJ, Tapson, JC & van Schaik, A 2015, 'A neuromorphic implementation of multiple spike-timing synaptic plasticity rules for large-scale neural networks', Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 9, no. MAY.
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© 2015 Wang, Hamilton, Tapson, van Schaik. We present a neuromorphic implementation of multiple synaptic plasticity learning rules, which include both Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP) and Spike Timing Dependent Delay Plasticity (STDDP). We present a fully digital implementation as well as a mixed-signal implementation, both of which use a novel dynamic-assignment time-multiplexing approach and support up to 2²⁶ (64M) synaptic plasticity elements. Rather than implementing dedicated synapses for particular types of synaptic plasticity, we implemented a more generic synaptic plasticity adaptor array that is separate from the neurons in the neural network. Each adaptor performs synaptic plasticity according to the arrival times of the pre- and post-synaptic spikes assigned to it, and sends out a weighted or delayed pre-synaptic spike to the post-synaptic neuron in the neural network. This strategy provides great flexibility for building complex large-scale neural networks, as a neural network can be configured for multiple synaptic plasticity rules without changing its structure. We validate the proposed neuromorphic implementations with measurement results and illustrate that the circuits are capable of performing both STDP and STDDP. We argue that it is practical to scale the work presented here up to 2³⁶ (64G) synaptic adaptors on a current high-end FPGA platform.

Wang, S, Wu, Q, He, X, Yang, J & Wang, Y 2015, 'Local $N$ -Ary Pattern and Its Extension for Texture Classification', IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 25, no. 9, pp. 1495-1506.
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© 1991-2012 IEEE. Texture image classification is important in computer vision research. To effectively capture texture patterns, a distinctive feature such as a local binary pattern (LBP) is needed. An LBP is robust against monotonic and gray-scale variations and it computes quickly. Its robustness and speed advantage have made it popular in various texture analysis applications. However, an LBP is sensitive to noise, particularly smooth weak illumination gradients in near-uniform regions. To mitigate the effect of noise and increase distinctiveness, a local ternary pattern (LTP) is proposed. Compared with a binary coding LBP, an LTP adopts ternary coding. As a result, an LTP can better tolerate noise and is significantly more distinctive. These advantages of an LTP effectively improve its classification accuracy. However, the potential of ternary coding is not fully explored in LTPs because a ternary pattern is split into a pair of binary patterns. In this paper, to fully explore the distinctiveness in the local pattern, the feature extraction process is formulated as an integer decomposition problem, which is a generalized version of the Bachet de Meziriac weight problem (BMWP). Following this generalization, a local n -ary pattern (LNP) is proposed, for which the LBP is a special case parametrized under n=2. The LTP is not a special case of the LNP. Both LBP and LTP are used as benchmark methods to evaluate LNPs performance due to their well-recognized success. In addition, a rotation-invariant and uniform LNP is also proposed and compared with a rotation-invariant and uniform LBP. The proposed LNP achieves significantly improved texture classification accuracy compared with the LBP and also demonstrates considerable improvement over the LTP.

Wang, S, Zhang, J, Han, TX & Miao, Z 2015, 'Sketch-Based Image Retrieval Through Hypothesis-Driven Object Boundary Selection With HLR Descriptor', IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, vol. 17, no. 7, pp. 1045-1057.
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The appearance gap between sketches and photo- realistic images is a fundamental challenge in sketch-based image retrieval (SBIR) systems. The existence of noisy edges on photo- realistic images is a key factor in the enlargement of the appearance gap and significantly degrades retrieval performance . To bridge the gap, we propose a framework consisting of a new line segment -based descriptor named histogram of line relationship (HLR) and a new noise impact reduction algorithm known as object boundary selection . HLR treats sketches and extracted edges of photo- realistic images as a series of piece-wise line segments and captures the relationship between them. Based on the HLR, the object boundary selection algorithm aims to reduce the impact of noisy edges by selecting the shaping edges that best correspond to the object boundaries. Multiple hypotheses are generated for descriptors by hypothetical edge selection. The selection algorithm is formulated to find the best combination of hypotheses to maximize the retrieval score; a fast method is also proposed. To reduce the distraction of false matches in the scoring process, two constraints on spatial and coherent aspects are introduced . We tested the HLR descriptor and the proposed framework on public datasets and a new image dataset of three million images, which we recently collected for SBIR evaluation purposes. We compared the proposed HLR with state-of-the-art descriptors (SHoG, GF-HOG). The experimental results show that our HLR descriptor outperforms them. Combined with the object boundary selection algorithm, our framework significantly improves SBIR performance.

Wang, TQ, Green, RJ & Armstrong, J 2015, 'MIMO Optical Wireless Communications Using ACO-OFDM and a Prism-Array Receiver', IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 33, no. 9, pp. 1959-1971.
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© 2015 IEEE. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a prism-array receiver in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) intensity-modulated direct-detection optical wireless communication system. The elements of the MIMO channel matrix depend on the geometry of each prism and the orientation of the prism relative to the optical transmitter. An expression is derived for each channel gain as a function of the angle of the prism, the aspect ratio and area of the receiving surface of the prism, and the orientation and distance between the transmitter and receiver. Results are presented for the directionality and overall field of view (FOV) of a receiver comprising six prisms, showing that compact receivers can be designed, which combine well-conditioned channel matrices with wide FOVs. Simulation results are presented for a typical indoor visible light communication system where four light-emitting diode lights transmit information using asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and linear equalizers are used in the receiver. It is shown that the overall bit error rate depends very strongly on the angle of the prisms and on the position of the receiver, but that a simple six-prism receiver can successfully decouple the four transmitted signals at typical receiver positions within the room.

Wang, W, Zhang, G & Lu, J 2015, 'Collaborative Filtering with Entropy-Driven User Similarity in Recommender Systems', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 854-870.
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© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Collaborative filtering (CF) is the most popular approach in personalized recommender systems. Although CF approaches have successfully been used and have the advantage in that it is unnecessary to analyze item content when generating recommendations, they nevertheless suffer from problems with accuracy. In this paper, we propose a new CF approach to improve recommendation performance. First, a new information entropy-driven user similarity measure model is proposed to measure the relative difference between ratings. A Manhattan distance-based model is then developed to address the fat tail problem by estimating the alternative active user average rating. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is analyzed on public and private data sets. As a result of the introduction of the new similarity measure and average rating estimation, we demonstrate that the proposed new CF recommendation approach provides better recommendations.

Wang, X, Zhang, Y, Zhang, W, Lin, X & Wang, W 2015, 'AP-Tree: efficiently support location-aware Publish/Subscribe', The VLDB Journal, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 823-848.
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© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. We investigate the problem of efficiently supporting location-aware Publish/Subscribe (Pub/Sub for short), which is essential in many applications such as location-based recommendation and advertising, thanks to the proliferation of geo-equipped devices and the ensuing location-based social media applications. In a location-aware Pub/Sub system (e.g., an e-coupon system), subscribers can register their interest as spatial-keyword subscriptions (e.g., interest in nearby iphone discount); each incoming geo-textual message (e.g., geo-tagged e-coupon) will be delivered to all the relevant subscribers immediately. While there are several prior approaches aiming at providing efficient processing techniques for this problem, their approaches belong to spatial-prioritized indexing method which cannot well exploit the keyword distribution. In addition, their textual filtering techniques are built upon simple variants of traditional inverted indexes, which do not perform well for the textual constraint imposed by the problem. In this paper, we address the above limitations and provide a highly efficient solution based on a novel adaptive index, named AP-Tree. AP-Tree adaptively groups registered subscriptions using keyword and spatial partitions, guided by a cost model. AP-Tree also naturally indexes ordered keyword combinations. Furthermore, we show that our techniques can be extended to process moving spatial-keyword subscriptions, where subscribers can continuously update their locations. We present efficient algorithms to process both stationary and moving subscriptions, which can seamlessly and effectively integrate keyword and spatial partitions. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that AP-Tree and its variant AP+-Tree can achieve up to an order of magnitude improvement on efficiency compared with prior state-of-the-art methods.

Wang, Y, Huang, Z & Wang, Y 2015, 'A new approach to synthesize MoO₂@C for high-rate lithium ion batteries', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 3, no. 42, pp. 21314-21320.
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A new approach is used to synthesize MoO₂@C with excellent capacity, rate capability and cycle stability for LIBs.

Wang, Y, Luo, Z, Kang, Z & Zhang, N 2015, 'A multi-material level set-based topology and shape optimization method', Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 283, pp. 1570-1586.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. This paper proposes a new Multi-Material Level Set (MM-LS) topology description model for topology and shape optimization of structures involving multiple materials. Each phase is represented by a combined formulation of different level set functions. With a total number of M level set functions, this approach provides a representation of M materials and one void phase (totally M+. 1 phases). The advantages of the proposed method include: (1) it can guarantee that each point contains exactly one phase, without overlaps between each two phases and redundant regions within the design domain; (2) it possesses an explicit mathematical expression, which greatly facilitates the design sensitivity analysis; and (3) it retains the merits of the level set method, including smooth boundary and distinct interface. A parametric level set method is applied to evolve the topology and shape of multi-material structures, with a high computational efficiency. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Wang, Y, Wang, B, Xiao, F, Huang, Z, Wang, Y, Richardson, C, Chen, Z, Jiao, L & Yuan, H 2015, 'Facile synthesis of nanocage Co3O4 for advanced lithium-ion batteries', Journal of Power Sources, vol. 298, pp. 203-208.
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Wang, Y-K, Jung, T-P & Lin, C-T 2015, 'EEG-Based Attention Tracking During Distracted Driving', IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 1085-1094.
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Wang, YX, Ngo, HH & Guo, WS 2015, 'Preparation of a specific bamboo based activated carbon and its application for ciprofloxacin removal', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 533, pp. 32-39.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V.. The studied bamboo based activated carbon (BbAC) with high specific surface area (SSA) and high micro pore volume was prepared from bamboo scraps by the combined activation of H3PO4 and K2CO3. The BbAC was characterized based on the N2 adsorption isotherm at 77K. The results showed that the SSA and pore volume of BbAC increased with increasing impregnation ratio and reached maxima at the impregnation ratio of 3:1 at 750°C. Under these optimal conditions, the BbAC obtained could have a maximum SSA of 2237m²/g and a maximum total pore volume of 1.23cm³/g with the micro pore ratio of more than 90%. The adsorption performance of ciprofloxacin (CIP) on the BbAC was determined at 298K. The Langmuir and Freundlich models were employed to describe the adsorption equilibrium and the kinetic data were fitted by pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order kinetic models. The results showed that the Langmuir model and the pseudo second-order kinetic model presented better fittings for the adsorption equilibrium and kinetics data, respectively. The maximum adsorption amount of CIP (613mg/g) on the BbAC was much higher than the report in the literature. Conclusively, the BbAC could be a promising adsorption material for CIP removal from water.

Wang, Z, Liu, G, Zheng, H, Li, F, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Liu, C, Chen, L & Xing, B 2015, 'Investigating the mechanisms of biochar’s removal of lead from solution', Bioresource Technology, vol. 177, pp. 308-317.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between Pb2+ adsorption and physicochemical properties of biochars produced at different pyrolytic temperatures. Ten biochars were prepared from peanut shell (PS) and Chinese medicine material residue (MR) at 300-600°C. Adsorption kinetics and isotherms were determined, and the untreated and Pb2+-loaded biochars were analyzed by FTIR, SEM-EDX and XRD. Functional groups complexation, Pb2+-π interaction and precipitation with minerals jointly contributed to Pb2+ adsorption on these biochars. New mineral precipitates (e.g., Pb2(SO4)O and Pb4(CO3)2(SO4)(OH)2) formed during Pb2+ sorption. For high-temperature biochars (≥500°C), Pb2+ sorption via complexation reduced, but the contribution of Pb2+-π interaction was enhanced. Dramatic reduction of Pb2+ sorption on demineralized biochars indicated the dominant role of minerals. These results are useful for screening effective biochars as engineered sorbents to remove or immobilize Pb2+ in polluted water and soil.

Wargocki, P, Deng, W, Anwer, A & Goldys, E 2015, 'Medically Relevant Assays with a Simple Smartphone and Tablet Based Fluorescence Detection System', Sensors, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 11653-11664.
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Cell phones and smart phones can be reconfigured as biomedical sensor devices but this requires specialized add-ons. In this paper we present a simple cell phone-based portable bioassay platform, which can be used with fluorescent assays in solution. The system consists of a tablet, a polarizer, a smart phone (camera) and a box that provides dark readout conditions. The assay in a well plate is placed on the tablet screen acting as an excitation source. A polarizer on top of the well plate separates excitation light from assay fluorescence emission enabling assay readout with a smartphone camera. The assay result is obtained by analysing the intensity of image pixels in an appropriate colour channel. With this device we carried out two assays, for collagenase and trypsin using fluorescein as the detected fluorophore. The results of collagenase assay with the lowest measured concentration of 3.75 µg/mL and 0.938 µg in total in the sample were comparable to those obtained by a microplate reader. The lowest measured amount of trypsin was 930 pg, which is comparable to the low detection limit of 400 pg for this assay obtained in a microplate reader. The device is sensitive enough to be used in point-of-care medical diagnostics of clinically relevant conditions, including arthritis, cystic fibrosis and acute pancreatitis.

Warkiani, ME, Tay, AKP, Guan, G & Han, J 2015, 'Membrane-less microfiltration using inertial microfluidics', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 11018.
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AbstractMicrofiltration is a ubiquitous and often crucial part of many industrial processes, including biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Yet, all existing filtration systems suffer from the issue of membrane clogging, which fundamentally limits the efficiency and reliability of the filtration process. Herein, we report the development of a membrane-less microfiltration system by massively parallelizing inertial microfluidics to achieve a macroscopic volume processing rates (~ 500 mL/min). We demonstrated the systems engineered for CHO (10–20 μm) and yeast (3–5 μm) cells filtration, which are two main cell types used for large-scale bioreactors. Our proposed system can replace existing filtration membrane and provide passive (no external force fields), continuous filtration, thus eliminating the need for membrane replacement. This platform has the desirable combinations of high throughput, low-cost and scalability, making it compatible for a myriad of microfiltration applications and industrial purposes.

Warkiani, ME, Tay, AKP, Khoo, BL, Xiaofeng, X, Han, J & Lim, CT 2015, 'Malaria detection using inertial microfluidics', Lab on a Chip, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 1101-1109.
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Diagnosis of malaria at the early stage of infection is challenging due to the difficulty in detecting low abundance parasites from blood.

Warkiani, ME, Wicaksana, F, Fane, AG & Gong, H-Q 2015, 'Investigation of membrane fouling at the microscale using isopore filters', Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 307-315.
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Wei, D, Wang, B, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Han, F, Wang, X, Du, B & Wei, Q 2015, 'Role of extracellular polymeric substances in biosorption of dye wastewater using aerobic granular sludge', Bioresource Technology, vol. 185, pp. 14-20.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. In this study, the role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in biosorption of dye wastewater was evaluated using aerobic granular sludge as biosorbent. Based on the experimental data, the removal efficiencies of methylene blue (MB) by EPS and Sludge were 9.38 and 80.72%, respectively, implying that EPS made a certain contribution for MB removal. The adsorption rates of EPS, Sludge, and total Sludge. +. EPS for MB were better fitted with pseudo-second order kinetic model, and the equilibrium adsorption isotherm data agreed well with Langmuir model. The interaction between EPS and MB was explored by a combined three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM) and synchronous fluorescence spectra. 3D-EEM indicated that protein- and humic acid-like substances were the main peaks of EPS, and gradually quenched with increased MB concentrations. According to synchronous fluorescence spectra, the main fluorescence quenching was caused by tryptophan residues, and the type belonged to a combined dynamic and static quenching.

Wei, F, Guo, YJ, Qin, P-Y & Shi, XW 2015, 'Compact Balanced Dual- and Tri-band Bandpass Filters Based on Stub Loaded Resonators', IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 76-78.
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© 2001-2012 IEEE. A stub loaded resonator (SLR) is presented in this letter, which can achieve dual-band or tri-band differential-mode (DM) bandpass response with a high common-mode (CM) suppression. By changing the length of the center-loaded stub, the resonant frequency of the CM can be varied without affecting that of the DM. This helps in simplifying the design and tuning processes of the balanced filters. In order to validate its practicalbility, two balanced bandpass filters (BPFs) with two and three DM passbands and good CM suppression are designed. Good agreement between simulated and measured results is observed. To our best knowledge, the proposed balanced tri-band BPF is the first ever reported.

Weiguan Zhang, Haoshen Zhu & Lee, JE-Y 2015, 'Piezoresistive Transduction in a Double-Ended Tuning Fork SOI MEMS Resonator for Enhanced Linear Electrical Performance', IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 1596-1602.
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Weisner, K, Deuse, J & Jaitner, T 2015, 'Erhöhung der Einsatzflexibilität operativer Mitarbeiter', Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, vol. 110, no. 9, pp. 537-541.
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KurzfassungDie Dynamisierung und Digitalisierung der Arbeit bedingen steigende Flexibilitätsanforderungen an operative Mitarbeiter. Um möglichen negativen Folgen der resultierenden Beanspruchung entgegenzuwirken, wird ein Trainingskonzept entwickelt, das die Anpassungsfähigkeit von Mitarbeitern bei ständig variierenden Umgebungsparametern fördert. Grundlage hierfür bildet der systemdynamische Ansatz aus den Sport- und Bewegungswissenschaften, dessen zentraler Aspekt die Adaptivität koordinativer Systeme ist.

Wells, G, Bleicher, K, Han, X, McShane, M, Chan, YF, Bartlett, A, White, C & Lau, SM 2015, 'Maternal Diabetes, Large-for-Gestational-Age Births, and First Trimester Pregnancy–Associated Plasma Protein-A', The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 100, no. 6, pp. 2372-2379.
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Wen, S, Huang, T, Zeng, Z, Chen, Y & Li, P 2015, 'Circuit design and exponential stabilization of memristive neural networks', Neural Networks, vol. 63, pp. 48-56.
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Wen, S, Zeng, Z & Huang, T 2015, 'Observer-basedH_∞fuzzy control for discrete-time Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy mixed delay systems with random packet losses and multiplicative noises', International Journal of Systems Science, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 159-169.
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Wen, S, Zeng, Z, Huang, T, Meng, Q & Yao, W 2015, 'Lag Synchronization of Switched Neural Networks via Neural Activation Function and Applications in Image Encryption', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 1493-1502.
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Wen, S, Zeng, Z, Huang, T, Yu, X & Xiao, M 2015, 'New Criteria of Passivity Analysis for Fuzzy Time-Delay Systems With Parameter Uncertainties', IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 2284-2301.
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Wen, SP, Zeng, ZG, Huang, TW & Li, CJ 2015, 'Passivity and passification of stochastic impulsive memristor-based piecewise linear system with mixed delays', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBUST AND NONLINEAR CONTROL, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 610-624.
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Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This paper is concerned with the problem of passivity analysis and passification for a class of stochastic impulsive memristor-based piecewise linear (PWL) systems with mixed delays and nonlinearity disturbances. Based on the PWL memristor, a PWL system is set up. And some novel sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the passivity/passification performance, such that, for all admissible stochastic disturbances and nonlinearity, the closed-loop stochastic impulsive memristor-based PWL system is passive in the sense of expectation.

Wichert, A & Moreira, C 2015, 'On Projection Based Operators in lp Space for Exact Similarity Search', Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 136, no. 4, pp. 461-474.
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Wight, NM & Bennett, NS 2015, 'Geothermal energy from abandoned oil and gas wells using water in combination with a closed wellbore', Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 89, pp. 908-915.
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Wijekoon, KC, McDonald, JA, Khan, SJ, Hai, FI, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2015, 'Development of a predictive framework to assess the removal of trace organic chemicals by anaerobic membrane bioreactor', Bioresource Technology, vol. 189, pp. 391-398.
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Williams, R, Lawrence, C, Wilkes, E, Shipp, M, Henry, B, Eades, S, Mathers, B, Kaldor, J, Maher, L & Gray, D 2015, 'Sexual behaviour, drug use and health service use by young Noongar people in Western Australia: a snapshot', Sexual Health, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 188-188.
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BackgroundThis study aimed to describe sexual health behaviour, alcohol and other drug use, and health service use among young Noongar people in the south-west of Western Australia. Method: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken among a sample of 244 Noongar people aged 16−30 years. Results: The sample was more disadvantaged than the wider Noongar population. Sexual activity was initiated at a young age, 18% had two or more casual sex partners in the previous 12 months, with men more likely to have done so than women (23% vs 14%). Condoms were always or often carried by 57% of men and 37% of women, and 36% of men and 23% of women reported condom use at last sex with a casual partner. Lifetime sexually transmissible infection diagnosis was 14%. Forty percent currently smoked tobacco and 25% reported risky alcohol consumption on a weekly and 7% on an almost daily basis. Cannabis was used by 37%, 12% used drugs in addition to cannabis and 11% reported recently injecting drugs. In the previous 12 months, 66% had a health check and 31% were tested for HIV or sexually transmissible infections. Additionally, 25% sought advice or assistance for mental health or alcohol and other drug issues. Discussion: Although some respondents engaged in risky sexual behaviour, alcohol and other drug use or both, most did not. Particularly encouraging was the engagement of respondents with the health care system, especially among those engaging in risky behaviours. The results confound negative stereotypes of Aboriginal people and demonstrate a level of resilience among respondents.

Woo, YC, Lee, JJ, Tijing, LD, Shon, HK, Yao, M & Kim, H-S 2015, 'Characteristics of membrane fouling by consecutive chemical cleaning in pressurized ultrafiltration as pre-treatment of seawater desalination', DESALINATION, vol. 369, pp. 51-61.
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Wu, D, Gao, W, Li, G, Tangaramvong, S & Tin-Loi, F 2015, 'Robust assessment of collapse resistance of structures under uncertain loads based on Info-Gap model', Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 285, pp. 208-227.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. The paper proposes a pair of novel mathematical programming based approaches which directly determine the worst collapse load limit in one case, and the best limit in the other case of rigid perfectly-plastic structures subjected to uncertain-but-bounded applied loads using an Info-Gap model. The methods take advantage of the important properties in which the worst collapse load limit defined for an uncertain static formulation is equivalent to the most favourable solution of the uncertain kinematic limit analysis problem, and vice versa for the best collapse load limit. The formulation for capturing the worst collapse load limit (robust worst case solution) takes the form as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints that is processed using a penalty algorithm, whilst that for the best collapse load limit is a standard linear programming problem. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed schemes are evidenced from a number of successfully solved examples.

Wu, D, Gao, W, Song, C & Luo, Z 2015, 'Mathematical Programming Approaches for Interval Structural Behaviour and Stability Analysis', CMES-COMPUTER MODELING IN ENGINEERING & SCIENCES, vol. 108, no. 5, pp. 331-373.
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Two novel mathematical programming approaches are proposed to separately assess non-deterministic behaviour and stability of engineering structures against disparate uncertainties. Within the proposed computational schemes, uncertainties attributed by the material properties, loading regimes, as well as environmental influences are simultaneously incorporated and modelled by the interval approach. The proposed mathematical programming approaches proficiently transform the uncertain structural analyses into deterministic mathematical programs. Two essential aspects of structural analysis, namely linear structural behaviour and bifurcation buckling, have been explicitly investigated. Diverse verifications have been implemented to justify the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed approaches through practically motivated numerical examples.

Wu, D, Lu, J & Zhang, G 2015, 'A Fuzzy Tree Matching-Based Personalized E-Learning Recommender System', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 2412-2426.
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© 1993-2012 IEEE. The rapid development of e-learning systems provides learners with great opportunities to access learning activities online, and this greatly supports and enhances the learning practices. However, an issue reduces the success of application of e-learning systems; too many learning activities (such as various leaning materials, subjects, and learning resources) are emerging in an e-learning system, making it difficult for individual learners to select proper activities for their particular situations/requirements because there is no personalized service function. Recommender systems, which aim to provide personalized recommendations for products or services, can be used to solve this issue. However, e-learning systems need to be able to handle certain special requirements: 1) leaning activities and learners' profiles often present tree structures; 2) learning activities contain vague and uncertain data, such as the uncertain categories that the learning activities belong to; 3) there are pedagogical issues, such as the precedence relations between learning activities. To deal with the three requirements, this study first proposes a fuzzy tree-structured learning activity model, and a learner profile model to comprehensively describe the complex learning activities and learner profiles. In the two models, fuzzy category trees and related similarity measures are presented to infer the semantic relations between learning activities or learner requirements. Since it is impossible to have two completely same trees, in practice, a fuzzy tree matching method is carefully discussed. A fuzzy tree matching-based hybrid learning activity recommendation approach is then developed. This approach takes advantage of both the knowledge-based and collaborative filtering-based recommendation approaches, and considers both the semantic and collaborative filtering similarities between learners. Finally, an e-learning recommender system prototype is well de...

Wu, D, Zhang, G & Lu, J 2015, 'A Fuzzy Preference Tree-Based Recommender System for Personalized Business-to-Business E-Services', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 29-43.
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© 2014 IEEE. The Web creates excellent opportunities for businesses to provide personalized online services to their customers. Recommender systems aim to automatically generate personalized suggestions of products/services to customers (businesses or individuals). Although recommender systems have been well studied, there are still two challenges in the development of a recommender system, particularly in real-world B2B e-services: 1) items or user profiles often present complicated tree structures in business applications, which cannot be handled by normal item similarity measures and 2) online users' preferences are often vague and fuzzy, and cannot be dealt with by existing recommendation methods. To handle both these challenges, this study first proposes a method for modeling fuzzy tree-structured user preferences, in which fuzzy set techniques are used to express user preferences. A recommendation approach to recommending tree-structured items is then developed. The key technique in this study is a comprehensive tree matching method, which can match two tree-structured data and identify their corresponding parts by considering all the information on tree structures, node attributes, and weights. Importantly, the proposed fuzzy preference tree-based recommendation approach is tested and validated using an Australian business dataset and the MovieLens dataset. Experimental results show that the proposed fuzzy tree-structured user preference profile reflects user preferences effectively and the recommendation approach demonstrates excellent performance for tree-structured items, especially in e-business applications. This study also applies the proposed recommendation approach to the development of a web-based business partner recommender system.

Wu, F, Wang, Z, Zhang, Z, Yang, Y, Luo, J, Zhu, W & Zhuang, Y 2015, 'Weakly Semi-Supervised Deep Learning for Multi-Label Image Annotation', IEEE Transactions on Big Data, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 109-122.
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Wu, H, Fan, J, Zhang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Hu, Z & Liang, S 2015, 'Decentralized domestic wastewater treatment using intermittently aerated vertical flow constructed wetlands: Impact of influent strengths', Bioresource Technology, vol. 176, pp. 163-168.
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Wu, H, Fan, J, Zhang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Liang, S, Hu, Z & Liu, H 2015, 'Strategies and techniques to enhance constructed wetland performance for sustainable wastewater treatment', Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol. 22, no. 19, pp. 14637-14650.
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Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been used as an alternative to conventional technologies for wastewater treatment for more than five decades. Recently, the use of various modified CWs to improve treatment performance has also been reported in the literature. However, the available knowledge on various CW technologies considering the intensified and reliable removal of pollutants is still limited. Hence, this paper aims to provide an overview of the current development of CW strategies and techniques for enhanced wastewater treatment. Basic information on configurations and characteristics of different innovations was summarized. Then, overall treatment performance of those systems and their shortcomings were further discussed. Lastly, future perspectives were also identified for specialists to design more effective and sustainable CWs. This information is used to inspire some novel intensifying methodologies, and benefit the successful applications of potential CW technologies.

Wu, H, Zhang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Hu, Z, Liang, S, Fan, J & Liu, H 2015, 'A review on the sustainability of constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment: Design and operation', Bioresource Technology, vol. 175, pp. 594-601.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been used as a green technology to treat various wastewaters for several decades. CWs offer a land-intensive, low-energy, and less-operational-requirements alternative to conventional treatment systems, especially for small communities and remote locations. However, the sustainable operation and successful application of these systems remains a challenge. Hence, this paper aims to provide and inspire sustainable solutions for the performance and application of CWs by giving a comprehensive review of CWs' application and the recent development on their sustainable design and operation for wastewater treatment. Firstly, a brief summary on the definition, classification and application of current CWs was presented. The design parameters and operational conditions of CWs including plant species, substrate types, water depth, hydraulic load, hydraulic retention time and feeding mode related to the sustainable operation for wastewater treatments were then discussed. Lastly, future research on improving the stability and sustainability of CWs were highlighted.

Wu, J, Luo, Z, Zhang, N & Zhang, Y 2015, 'A new interval uncertain optimization method for structures using Chebyshev surrogate models', Computers & Structures, vol. 146, pp. 185-196.
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Wu, J, Luo, Z, Zhang, N & Zhang, Y 2015, 'A new sampling scheme for developing metamodels with the zeros of Chebyshev polynomials', Engineering Optimization, vol. 47, no. 9, pp. 1264-1288.
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The accuracy of metamodelling is determined by both the sampling and approximation. This article proposes a new sampling method based on the zeros of Chebyshev polynomials to capture the sampling information effectively. First, the zeros of one-dimensional Chebyshev polynomials are applied to construct Chebyshev tensor product (CTP) sampling, and the CTP is then used to construct high-order multi-dimensional metamodels using the ‘hypercube’ polynomials. Secondly, the CTP sampling is further enhanced to develop Chebyshev collocation method (CCM) sampling, to construct the ‘simplex’ polynomials. The samples of CCM are randomly and directly chosen from the CTP samples. Two widely studied sampling methods, namely the Smolyak sparse grid and Hammersley, are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sampling method. Several numerical examples are utilized to validate the approximation accuracy of the proposed metamodel under different dimensions.

Wu, J, Luo, Z, Zhang, N & Zhang, Y 2015, 'A new uncertain analysis method and its application in vehicle dynamics', Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 50-51, pp. 659-675.
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This paper proposes a new uncertain analysis method for vehicle dynamics involving hybrid uncertainty parameters. The Polynomial Chaos (PC) theory that accounts for the random uncertainty is systematically integrated with the Chebyshev inclusion function theory that describes the interval uncertainty, to deliver a Polynomial-Chaos-Chebyshev-Interval (PCCI) method. The PCCI method is non-intrusive, because it does not require the amendment of the original solver for different and complicated dynamics problems. Two types of evaluation indexes are established: the first includes interval mean (IM) and interval variance (IV), and the second are the mean of lower bound (MLB), the variance of lower bound (VLB), the mean of upper bound (MUB) and the variance of upper bound (VUB). The Monte Carlo method is combined with the scanning method to produce the reference results, and then a 4-DOF vehicle roll plan model is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for vehicle dynamics. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wu, J, Wu, B, Pan, S, Wang, H & Cai, Z 2015, 'Locally Weighted Learning: How and When Does it Work in Bayesian Networks?', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS, vol. 8, pp. 63-74.
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© 2016, Taylor and Francis Ltd. All rights reserved. Bayesian network (BN), a simple graphical notation for conditional independence assertions, is promised to represent the probabilistic relationships between diseases and symptoms. Learning the structure of a Bayesian network classifier (BNC) encodes conditional independence assumption between attributes, which may deteriorate the classification performance. One major approach to mitigate the BNC’s primary weakness (the attributes independence assumption) is the locally weighted approach. And this type of approach has been proved to achieve good performance for naive Bayes, a BNC with simple structure. However, we do not know whether or how effective it works for improving the performance of the complex BNC. In this paper, we first do a survey on the complex structure models for BNCs and their improvements, then carry out a systematically experimental analysis to investigate the effectiveness of locally weighted method for complex BNCs, e.g., tree-augmented naive Bayes (TAN), averaged one-dependence estimators AODE and hidden naive Bayes (HNB), measured by classification accuracy (ACC) and the area under the ROC curve ranking (AUC). Experiments and comparisons on 36 benchmark data sets collected from University of California, Irvine (UCI) in Weka system demonstrate that locally weighting technologies just slightly outperforms unweighted complex BNCs on ACC and AUC. In other words, although locally weighting could significantly improve the performance of NB (a BNC with simple structure), it could not work well on BNCs with complex structures. This is because the performance improvements of BNCs are attributed to their structures not the locally weighting.

Wu, L, Qiu, X, Burnett, I & Guo, Y 2015, 'Reverberation time estimation from speech signals based on blind room impulse response identification (L)', JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, vol. 138, no. 2, pp. 731-734.
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Wu, L, Qiu, X, Burnett, IS & Guo, Y 2015, 'A recursive least square algorithm for active control of mixed noise', JOURNAL OF SOUND AND VIBRATION, vol. 339, pp. 1-10.
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Wu, L, Qiu, X, Burnett, IS & Guo, Y 2015, 'Decoupling feedforward and feedback structures in hybrid active noise control systems for uncorrelated narrowband disturbances', JOURNAL OF SOUND AND VIBRATION, vol. 350, pp. 1-10.
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Wu, M 2015, 'A Survey of Chinese SMEs on Plans, Experiences and Perceptions of Global E-business', Journal of Art Media and Technology, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 32-46.

Wu, M & Lu, DD-C 2015, 'A Novel Stabilization Method of <italic>LC</italic> Input Filter With Constant Power Loads Without Load Performance Compromise in DC Microgrids', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 62, no. 7, pp. 4552-4562.
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© 1982-2012 IEEE. In dc microgrids, it is common that constant power loads (CPLs) exhibit negative incremental resistance. They degrade the stability margin of operation with their LC input filters and, thus, the whole system. In traditional active-damping methods, the extra stabilizing current is injected into CPLs to modify its input impedance to fulfill stability criteria. However, this injected current may cause undesirable performance of the loads, e.g., fluctuation in rotating speed of tightly regulated motors. There is always a compromise between stability margin and load performances. In order to overcome this drawback, this paper proposes a method that stabilizes the system from source-side converters, instead of from CPL themselves. In the proposed method, a virtual resistance is built in the source-side converter. This virtual resistor is effective around the resonant frequency of the LC input filter and thus can indirectly reduce its output impedance to fulfill Middlebrook's stability criterion. This paper also proves, both analytically and experimentally, that, in dc microgrids, resonant frequencies of LC filters of paralleled CPLs have to be different to maintain system stability. Simulation and experimental results are reported to verify the effectiveness of the proposed idea.

Wu, M, Lu, DD-C & Tse, CK 2015, 'Direct and Optimal Linear Active Methods for Stabilization of LC Input Filters and DC/DC Converters Under Voltage Mode Control', IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 402-412.
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Wu, XY, Gao, YY, Li, YS, Lei, J & Liu, K 2015, 'Determination of fast inter depth for HEVC based on dimensional similarity', Guangxue Jingmi Gongcheng/Optics and Precision Engineering, vol. 23, pp. 577-582.
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A fast depth decision algorithm for High Efficiency Video coding (HEVC) based on dimensional similarity in video sequences is proposed to improve its coding efficiency. As the difference between adjacent frames is in temporal, it implys strong dimensional similarity in inter-frame prediction. This paper analyzes the similar probability in Coding Unit (CU) depth between adjacent frames to pre-determine the depth of current CU. When the current CU does the depth splitting, its reference frame's CU depth information can be used to estimate the current CU depth. Then, it will jump over or stop some unnecessary deep splitting and to decrease the number of CU splittings and the coding computational complexity. The SKIP fast mode is also adopted to perform the fast determination. Experimental result shows that proposed algorithm reduces coding complexity by 52% as compared with original HEVC algorithm. Meanwhile, the average Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) only decreases 0.09 dB and the average coding rate is decreased by approximately 0.58%.

Wu, Z, Shi, J, Lu, C, Chen, E, Xu, G, Li, G, Xie, S & Yu, PS 2015, 'Constructing plausible innocuous pseudo queries to protect user query intention', Information Sciences, vol. 325, pp. 215-226.
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Xia, Y, Wu, C & Li, Z-X 2015, 'Optimized Design of Foam Cladding for Protection of Reinforced Concrete Members under Blast Loading', Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 141, no. 9, pp. 06014010-06014010.
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© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers. A load-cladding-structure (LCS) model was used to study the mitigating effect provided by metallic foam cladding against blast loading on reinforced concrete (RC) structural members. The model considered the interactions between an external blast load, a protecting foam cladding, and a target RC structural member. The effectiveness of the LCS model was validated by field blast tests conducted in 2009. The validated model was then used to derive pressure impulse diagrams of the foam-protected RC members. Afterwards, two nondimensional parameters representing the relationship between the foam cladding and the target RC member were characterized. Using the suggested nondimensional parameters, normalized pressure-impulse (p-i) diagrams for the foam-protected RC members were generated. The effects of the two nondimensional parameters on the p-i diagrams were investigated by comparing the corresponding asymptotes. Based on the predicted results, an optimized design of the foam cladding for RC structural members was suggested.

Xiang, J, Li, C, Li, H, Cao, R, Wang, B, Han, X & Chen, J 2015, 'The detection of epileptic seizure signals based on fuzzy entropy', Journal of Neuroscience Methods, vol. 243, pp. 18-25.
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Xiao, F, Naficy, S, Casillas, G, Khan, MH, Katkus, T, Jiang, L, Liu, H, Li, H & Huang, Z 2015, 'Edge‐Hydroxylated Boron Nitride Nanosheets as an Effective Additive to Improve the Thermal Response of Hydrogels', Advanced Materials, vol. 27, no. 44, pp. 7196-7203.
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Xiao, M, Gao, L, Xiong, H & Luo, Z 2015, 'An efficient method for reliability analysis under epistemic uncertainty based on evidence theory and support vector regression', Journal of Engineering Design, vol. 26, no. 10-12, pp. 340-364.
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© 2015 Taylor & Francis. With a great capability of dealing with epistemic uncertainty, evidence theory has been utilised to conduct reliability analysis for engineering systems recently. Unfortunately, the discontinuous nature of uncertainty quantification using evidence theory incurs a huge computational cost. This paper proposes an efficient method to improve the computational efficiency of evidence theory for reliability analysis. In this method, evidence variables are transformed into random variables. Support vector regression is used to construct the approximation model of the limit-state function. The most probable point (MPP) of the approximate reliability problem with only random variables is searched out. Based on the MPP, the most probable focal element (MPFE) of the original problem with evidence variables is identified. According to the MPFE and the monotonicity of the limit-state function, contributions of some focal elements to belief and plausibility in evidence theory can be judged directly. Hence, the number of focal elements involved in the calculation of extreme values of the limit-state function is reduced. Four numerical examples are utilised to test the performance of the proposed method. Results indicate that the proposed method can reduce the computational cost on reliability analysis under epistemic uncertainty while ensuring the high accuracy of reliability analysis results.

Xiao, M, Shao, X, Gao, L & Luo, Z 2015, 'A new methodology for multi-objective multidisciplinary design optimization problems based on game theory', Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 1602-1612.
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Xiao, P, Nghiem, LD, Yin, Y, Li, X-M, Zhang, M, Chen, G, Song, J & He, T 2015, 'A sacrificial-layer approach to fabricate polysulfone support for forward osmosis thin-film composite membranes with reduced internal concentration polarisation', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 481, pp. 106-114.
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Xiao, Z, Fang, J, Sun, G & Li, Q 2015, 'Crashworthiness design for functionally graded foam-filled bumper beam', Advances in Engineering Software, vol. 85, pp. 81-95.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract Automotive bumper beam is an important component to protect passenger and vehicle from injury and damage induced by severe collapse. Recent studies showed that foam-filled structures have significant advantages in light weight and high energy absorption. In this paper, a novel bumper beam filled with functionally graded foam (FGF) is considered here to explore its crashworthiness. To validate the FGF bumper beam model, the experiments at both component and full vehicle levels are conducted. Parametric study shows that gradient exponential parameter m that controls the variation of foam density has significant effect on bumper beam's crashworthiness; and the crashworthiness of FGF-filled bumper beam is found much better than that of uniform foam (UF) filled and hollow bumper beam. The multiobjective optimization of FGF-filled bumper beam is also performed by considering specific energy absorption (SEA) and peak impact force as the design objectives, and the wall thickness t, foam densities ρf1 and ρf2 (foam densities at the end and at mid cross section, respectively) and gradient exponential parameter m as design variables. The Kriging surrogate modeling technique and multiobjective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm were implemented to optimize the FGF-filled bumper beam. The optimized FGF-filled bumper beam is of great advantages and it can avoid the harmful local bending behavior and absorb more energy than UF filled and hollow bumper beam. Finally, the optimized FGF-filled bumper beam is installed to a passenger car model, and the results demonstrate that the FGF-filled bumper beam ensures the crashworthiness performance of the passenger car while reduces weight about 14.4% compared with baseline bumper beam.

Xie, K, Fu, Q, He, Y, Kim, J, Goh, SJ, Nam, E, Qiao, GG & Webley, PA 2015, 'Synthesis of well dispersed polymer grafted metal–organic framework nanoparticles', Chemical Communications, vol. 51, no. 85, pp. 15566-15569.
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We prepared novel polymer grafted MOF nanoparticles for the first time with excellent water dispersity and significantly enhanced catalytic effect.

Xie, M, Bar-Zeev, E, Hashmi, SM, Nghiem, LD & Elimelech, M 2015, 'Role of Reverse Divalent Cation Diffusion in Forward Osmosis Biofouling', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 22, pp. 13222-13229.
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Xie, M, Zheng, M, Cooper, P, Price, WE, Nghiem, LD & Elimelech, M 2015, 'Osmotic dilution for sustainable greenwall irrigation by liquid fertilizer: Performance and implications', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 494, pp. 32-38.
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Xu, F, Teng, X, Yuan, X, Sun, J, Wu, H, Zheng, Z, Tang, Y & Hu, S 2015, 'LCK: a new biomarker candidate for the early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (Retraction of vol 41, pg 8047, 2014)', MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REPORTS, vol. 42, no. 10, pp. 1487-1487.
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Xu, G, Wu, Z, Li, G & Chen, E 2015, 'Improving contextual advertising matching by using Wikipedia thesaurus knowledge', Knowledge and Information Systems, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 599-631.
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As a prevalent type of Web advertising, contextual advertising refers to the placement of the most relevant commercial ads within the content of a Web page, to provide a better user experience and as a result increase the user’s ad-click rate. However, due to the intrinsic problems of homonymy and polysemy, the low intersection of keywords, and a lack of sufficient semantics, traditional keyword matching techniques are not able to effectively handle contextual matching and retrieve relevant ads for the user, resulting in an unsatisfactory performance in ad selection. In this paper, we introduce a new contextual advertising approach to overcome these problems, which uses Wikipedia thesaurus knowledge to enrich the semantic expression of a target page (or an ad). First, we map each page into a keyword vector, upon which two additional feature vectors, the Wikipedia concept and category vector derived from the Wikipedia thesaurus structure, are then constructed. Second, to determine the relevant ads for a given page, we propose a linear similarity fusion mechanism, which combines the above three feature vectors in a unified manner. Last, we validate our approach using a set of real ads, real pages along with the external Wikipedia thesaurus. The experimental results show that our approach outperforms the conventional contextual advertising matching approaches and can substantially improve the performance of ad selection.

Xu, G, Wu, Z, Zhang, Y & Cao, J 2015, 'Social networking meets recommender systems: survey', International Journal of Social Network Mining, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 64-64.
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Today, the emergence of web-based communities and hosted services such as social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies, brings in tremendous freedom of web autonomy and facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing between users. Along with the interaction between users and computers, social media is rapidly becoming an important part of our digital experience, ranging from digital textual information to diverse multimedia forms. These aspects and characteristics constitute of the core of second generation of web. Social networking (SN) and recommender system (RS) are two hot and popular topics in the current Web 2.0 era, where the former emphasises the generation, dissemination and evolution of user relations, and the latter focuses on the use of collective preferences of users so as to provide the better experience and loyalty of users in various web applications. Leveraging user social connections is able to alleviate the common problems of sparsity and cold-start encountered in RS. This paper aims to summarise the research progresses and findings in these two areas and showcase the empowerment of integrating these two kinds of research strengths.

Xu, G, Zong, Y, Jin, P, Pan, R & Wu, Z 2015, 'KIPTC: a kernel information propagation tag clustering algorithm', Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 95-112.
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In the social annotation systems, users annotate digital data sources by using tags which are freely chosen textual descriptions. Tags are used to index, annotate and retrieve resource as an additional metadata of resource. Poor retrieval performance remains a major challenge of most social annotation systems resulting from several problems of ambiguity, redundancy and less semantic nature of tags. Clustering is a useful tool to handle these problems in social annotation systems. In this paper, we propose a novel tag clustering algorithm based on kernel information propagation. This approach makes use of the kernel density estimation of the kNN neighborhood directed graph as a start to reveal the prestige rank of tags in tagging data. The random walk with restart algorithm is then employed to determine the center points of tag clusters. The main strength of the proposed approach is the capability of partitioning tags from the perspective of tag prestige rank rather than the intuitive similarity calculation itself. Experimental studies on the six real world data sets demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method against other state-of-the-art clustering approaches in terms of various evaluation metrics.

Xu, GX, Sun, W & Peng, XP 2015, 'Clustering research across Tibetan and Chinese texts', Journal of Digital Information Management, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 162-168.
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Tibetan text clustering has potential in Tibetan information processing domain. In this paper, clustering research across Chinese and Tibetan texts is proposed to benefit Chinese and Tibetan machine translation and sentence alignment. A Tibetan and Chinese keyword table is the main way to implement the text clustering across these two languages. Improved K-means and improved density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm are proposed. Experiments show that improved K-means algorithm gains stable text clustering result and performs better than traditional K-means after eliminating the limitation of random selection of initial k data. The improved DBSCAN algorithm obtains good performance through reasonable parameter setting. Improved DBSCAN performs better than improved K-means. The study is helpful and meaningful for the parallel corpus construction of Chinese and Tibetan texts.

Xu, Y, Xu, A, Merigó, JM & Wang, H 2015, 'Hesitant fuzzy linguistic ordered weighted distance operators for group decision making', Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 49, no. 1-2, pp. 285-308.
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Since the concept of hesitant fuzzy sets was put forward, different types of extensions have been proposed to deal with actual problems. A hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set provides a linguistic and computational basis to increase the flexibility and richness of linguistic elicitation based on the fuzzy linguistic approach. In this paper, we consider the concept of distance operator and develop a hesitant fuzzy linguistic ordered weighted distance (HFLOWD) operator. The HFLOWD operator is very suitable to deal with the uncertain situations with linguistic information. Moreover, it is also a new aggregation operator that provides parameterized families of distance aggregation operators between the minimum and the maximum distance. Some of its main properties and different families of HFLOWD operators are investigated. Finally, an application of the new approach is offered and comparative analyses are also provided to show the advantages over existing methods.

Xuan, J, Lu, J, Zhang, G & Luo, X 2015, 'Topic Model for Graph Mining', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CYBERNETICS, vol. 45, no. 12, pp. 2792-2803.
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© 2013 IEEE. Graph mining has been a popular research area because of its numerous application scenarios. Many unstructured and structured data can be represented as graphs, such as, documents, chemical molecular structures, and images. However, an issue in relation to current research on graphs is that they cannot adequately discover the topics hidden in graph-structured data which can be beneficial for both the unsupervised learning and supervised learning of the graphs. Although topic models have proved to be very successful in discovering latent topics, the standard topic models cannot be directly applied to graph-structured data due to the 'bag-of-word' assumption. In this paper, an innovative graph topic model (GTM) is proposed to address this issue, which uses Bernoulli distributions to model the edges between nodes in a graph. It can, therefore, make the edges in a graph contribute to latent topic discovery and further improve the accuracy of the supervised and unsupervised learning of graphs. The experimental results on two different types of graph datasets show that the proposed GTM outperforms the latent Dirichlet allocation on classification by using the unveiled topics of these two models to represent graphs.

Xuan, J, Lu, J, Zhang, G, Xu, RYD & Luo, X 2015, 'Infinite Author Topic Model based on Mixed Gamma-Negative Binomial Process.', CoRR, vol. abs/1503.08535, pp. 1-10.
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Incorporating the side information of text corpus, i.e., authors, time stamps, and emotional tags, into the traditional text mining models has gained significant interests in the area of information retrieval, statistical natural language processing, and machine learning. One branch of these works is the so-called Author Topic Model (ATM), which incorporates the authors’s interests as side information into the classical topic model. However, the existing ATM needs to predefine the number of topics, which is difficult and inappropriate in many real-world settings. In this paper, we propose an Infinite Author Topic (IAT) model to resolve this issue. Instead of assigning a discrete probability on fixed number of topics, we use a stochastic process to determine the number of topics from the data itself. To be specific, we extend a gamma-negative binomial process to three levels in order to capture the author-document-keyword hierarchical structure. Furthermore, each document is assigned a mixed gamma process that accounts for the multi-author’s contribution towards this document. An efficient Gibbs sampling inference algorithm with each conditional distribution being closed-form is developed for the IAT model. Experiments on several real-world datasets show the capabilities of our IAT model to learn the hidden topics, authors’ interests on these topics and the number of topics simultaneously.

Yahong Han, Yi Yang, Yan Yan, Zhigang Ma, Sebe, N & Xiaofang Zhou 2015, 'Semisupervised Feature Selection via Spline Regression for Video Semantic Recognition', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 252-264.
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© 2014 IEEE. To improve both the efficiency and accuracy of video semantic recognition, we can perform feature selection on the extracted video features to select a subset of features from the high-dimensional feature set for a compact and accurate video data representation. Provided the number of labeled videos is small, supervised feature selection could fail to identify the relevant features that are discriminative to target classes. In many applications, abundant unlabeled videos are easily accessible. This motivates us to develop semisupervised feature selection algorithms to better identify the relevant video features, which are discriminative to target classes by effectively exploiting the information underlying the huge amount of unlabeled video data. In this paper, we propose a framework of video semantic recognition by semisupervised feature selection via spline regression (S2FS2R). Two scatter matrices are combined to capture both the discriminative information and the local geometry structure of labeled and unlabeled training videos: A within-class scatter matrix encoding discriminative information of labeled training videos and a spline scatter output from a local spline regression encoding data distribution. An ℓ2,1-norm is imposed as a regularization term on the transformation matrix to ensure it is sparse in rows, making it particularly suitable for feature selection. To efficiently solve S2FS2R, we develop an iterative algorithm and prove its convergency. In the experiments, three typical tasks of video semantic recognition, such as video concept detection, video classification, and human action recognition, are used to demonstrate that the proposed S2FS2R achieves better performance compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

Yan, X, Niu, G, Lin, J, Jin, AJ, Hu, H, Tang, Y, Zhang, Y, Wu, A, Lu, J, Zhang, S, Huang, P, Shen, B & Chen, X 2015, 'Enhanced fluorescence imaging guided photodynamic therapy of sinoporphyrin sodium loaded graphene oxide', Biomaterials, vol. 42, pp. 94-102.
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Yan, Y, Yang, Y, Meng, D, Liu, G, Tong, W, Hauptmann, AG & Sebe, N 2015, 'Event Oriented Dictionary Learning for Complex Event Detection', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 1867-1878.
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Yang Yang, Zhigang Ma, Yi Yang, Feiping Nie & Heng Tao Shen 2015, 'Multitask Spectral Clustering by Exploring Intertask Correlation', IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 1083-1094.
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Yang, C, Sheng, D, Carter, JP & Sloan, SW 2015, 'Modelling the plastic anisotropy of Lower Cromer Till', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 69, pp. 22-37.
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Yang, J, Wei, W, Pi, S, Ma, F, Li, A, Wu, D & Xing, J 2015, 'Competitive adsorption of heavy metals by extracellular polymeric substances extracted from Klebsiella sp. J1', Bioresource Technology, vol. 196, pp. 533-539.
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Yang, S, Center, JR, Eisman, JA & Nguyen, TV 2015, 'Association between fat mass, lean mass, and bone loss: the Dubbo osteoporosis epidemiology study', Osteoporosis International, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1381-1386.
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Yang, T, Sun, QT, Zhang, JA & Yuan, J 2015, 'A Linear Network Coding Approach for Uplink Distributed MIMO Systems: Protocol and Outage Behavior', IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 250-263.
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© 1983-2012 IEEE. A distributed multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system consists of M users served by L distributed base stations (BSs) , where the BSs are connected to a central unit (CU) via L independent backhaul (BH) links. In this paper, we consider the design of an uplink distributed MIMO system where 1) the channel state information is not available at the transmitters and 2) the BH links are rate constrained. We propose a new linear network coding (LNC)-based protocol: the M users transmit simultaneously. Each BS generates N linear functions of the M users' messages, based on a preassigned LNC coefficient matrix. The CU collects N ·L linear functions from the L BSs and recovers all M users' messages by solving these linear functions. The decoding becomes successful if the linear functions has full rank M and fails if the linear functions are rank deficient. We derive the preassigned LNC coefficient matrix that minimizes the probability of rank deficiency. We then analyze the outage probability (OP) of the proposed scheme over a Rayleigh fading channel. We analytically show that as long as the BH rate is greater than the individual data rate of one user, the OP of the proposed scheme decays like 1/SNRL at high SNR. This is in contrast to the existing scheme whose OP decays like 1/SNRL. As the BH rate constraint approaches M times the data rate of one user, the performance of the proposed scheme is 10/L log10 (L!) dB away from that of the full MIMO scenario at high SNR. We also develop a structured way to efficiently construct the preassigned LNC coefficient matrix that yields the optimized OP performance. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme has significantly improved performance over existing schemes.

Yang, W, Gao, Y, Shi, Y & Cao, L 2015, 'MRM-Lasso: A Sparse Multiview Feature Selection Method via Low-Rank Analysis', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 26, no. 11, pp. 2801-2815.
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Yang, Y, Chan, KY, Nikolic, N & Ramer, R 2015, 'Experimental proof for pattern reconfigurability of 60‐GHz quasi‐Yagi antenna', Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 84-88.
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ABSTRACTThis article demonstrates the possibility of designing pattern reconfigurable quasi‐Yagi antenna without compromising antenna's realized gain or operating frequency band. By controlling the length of dipole driven arms and the transition delay line, the E‐plane beam direction of designed antennas are steered from −20° to +20°, in 10° steps. In this communication, five separate 60 GHz antennas with different radiation directions are simulated, fabricated and measured. The experimental results match well the predicted ones and demonstrate that the radiation beam direction of quasi‐Yagi antenna can be freely shifted. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:84–88, 2015

Yang, Y, Ma, Z, Nie, F, Chang, X & Hauptmann, AG 2015, 'Multi-Class Active Learning by Uncertainty Sampling with Diversity Maximization', International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 113, no. 2, pp. 113-127.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. As a way to relieve the tedious work of manual annotation, active learning plays important roles in many applications of visual concept recognition. In typical active learning scenarios, the number of labelled data in the seed set is usually small. However, most existing active learning algorithms only exploit the labelled data, which often suffers from over-fitting due to the small number of labelled examples. Besides, while much progress has been made in binary class active learning, little research attention has been focused on multi-class active learning. In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised batch mode multi-class active learning algorithm for visual concept recognition. Our algorithm exploits the whole active pool to evaluate the uncertainty of the data. Considering that uncertain data are always similar to each other, we propose to make the selected data as diverse as possible, for which we explicitly impose a diversity constraint on the objective function. As a multi-class active learning algorithm, our algorithm is able to exploit uncertainty across multiple classes. An efficient algorithm is used to optimize the objective function. Extensive experiments on action recognition, object classification, scene recognition, and event detection demonstrate its advantages.

Yang, Z-Y, Pourghasemi, HR, Pradhan, B, Chen, T-C & Lee, Y-H 2015, 'An index to describe the earthquake effect on subsequent landslides in Central Taiwan', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 3139-3147.
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Yao, K, Idrees, MO, Pradhan, B & Nabeel, SM 2015, 'Detecting Land Use Land Cover Change Impacted by Civil Crisis in Ivory Coast using Remote Sensing and GIS', Asian J Appl Sci, vol. 3, no. 05.

Yazdani, D, Sadeghi-Lvrigh, S, Yazdani, D, Sepas-Moghaddam, A & Meybodi, MR 2015, 'Fish swarm search algorithm: A new algorithm for global optimization', International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 17-45.
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Optimization is amongst the most significant problems in mathematics and sciences and many researchers are investigating different aspects of this problem. In this paper, a novel algorithm has been proposed for optimization in continuous static environments based on the individual and social behaviors of fish in their swarms. The proposed algorithm, so called Fish Swarm Search Algorithm (FSSA), is a population-based algorithm that can considered among swarm intelligence, evolutionary and meta-heuristic approaches. In the proposed algorithm, there is a population of fish in which every individual fish moves toward better positions in the problem space by following better members of the population and performing a random search in the individual space. The proposed algorithm involves several advantages i.e. better intelligibility, simplicity, high convergence rate, high reliability, high balance between exploration and exploitation, and maintaining diversity in the swarm. There is only one parameter, namely population size, which needs to be initialized in the proposed algorithm in order to start the optimization process, which results in a considerable simplicity of the proposed. The proposed algorithm has been compared with nine other well-known algorithms in this domain on thirty benchmark functions with Unimodal, Multimodal, Shifted and Rotated characteristics. The experimental results and analysis reveals the superiority of the proposed method, compared to other comparative studies.

Ye, D & Zhang, M 2015, 'A Self-Adaptive Strategy for Evolution of Cooperation in Distributed Networks', IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 899-911.
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Ye, D, Zhang, M & Sutanto, D 2015, 'Decentralised dispatch of distributed energy resources in smart grids via multi-agent coalition formation', Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, vol. 83, pp. 30-43.
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Ye, D, Zhang, M & Yang, Y 2015, 'A Multi-Agent Framework for Packet Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks', Sensors, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 10026-10047.
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Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been widely investigated in recent years. One of the fundamental issues in WSNs is packet routing, because in many application domains, packets have to be routed from source nodes to destination nodes as soon and as energy efficiently as possible. To address this issue, a large number of routing approaches have been proposed. Although every existing routing approach has advantages, they also have some disadvantages. In this paper, a multi-agent framework is proposed that can assist existing routing approaches to improve their routing performance. This framework enables each sensor node to build a cooperative neighbour set based on past routing experience. Such cooperative neighbours, in turn, can help the sensor to effectively relay packets in the future. This framework is independent of existing routing approaches and can be used to assist many existing routing approaches. Simulation results demonstrate the good performance of this framework in terms of four metrics: average delivery latency, successful delivery ratio, number of live nodes and total sensing coverage.

Yin, H, Cui, B, Chen, L, Hu, Z & Zhang, C 2015, 'Modeling Location-Based User Rating Profiles for Personalized Recommendation', ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 1-41.
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This article proposes LA-LDA, a location-aware probabilistic generative model that exploits location-based ratings to model user profiles and produce recommendations. Most of the existing recommendation models do not consider the spatial information of users or items; however, LA-LDA supports three classes of location-based ratings, namely spatial user ratings for nonspatial items, nonspatial user ratings for spatial items, and spatial user ratings for spatial items. LA-LDA consists of two components, ULA-LDA and ILA-LDA, which are designed to take into account user and item location information, respectively. The component ULA-LDA explicitly incorporates and quantifies the influence from local public preferences to produce recommendations by considering user home locations, whereas the component ILA-LDA recommends items that are closer in both taste and travel distance to the querying users by capturing item co-occurrence patterns, as well as item location co-occurrence patterns. The two components of LA-LDA can be applied either separately or collectively, depending on the available types of location-based ratings. To demonstrate the applicability and flexibility of the LA-LDA model, we deploy it to both top- k recommendation and cold start recommendation scenarios. Experimental evidence on large-scale real-world data, including the data from Gowalla (a location-based social network), DoubanEvent (an event-based social network), and MovieLens (a movie recommendation system), reveal that LA-LDA models user profiles more accurately by outperforming existing recommendation models for top- k recommendation and the cold start problem.

Yin, H, Cui, B, Chen, L, Hu, Z & Zhou, X 2015, 'Dynamic User Modeling in Social Media Systems', ACM Transactions on Information Systems, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 1-44.
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Social media provides valuable resources to analyze user behaviors and capture user preferences. This article focuses on analyzing user behaviors in social media systems and designing a latent class statistical mixture model, named temporal context-aware mixture model (TCAM), to account for the intentions and preferences behind user behaviors. Based on the observation that the behaviors of a user in social media systems are generally influenced by intrinsic interest as well as the temporal context (e.g., the public's attention at that time), TCAM simultaneously models the topics related to users' intrinsic interests and the topics related to temporal context and then combines the influences from the two factors to model user behaviors in a unified way. Considering that users' interests are not always stable and may change over time, we extend TCAM to a dynamic temporal context-aware mixture model (DTCAM) to capture users' changing interests. To alleviate the problem of data sparsity, we exploit the social and temporal correlation information by integrating a social-temporal regularization framework into the DTCAM model. To further improve the performance of our proposed models (TCAM and DTCAM), an item-weighting scheme is proposed to enable them to favor items that better represent topics related to user interests and topics related to temporal context, respectively. Based on our proposed models, we design a temporal context-aware recommender system (TCARS). To speed up the process of producing the top- k recommendations from large-scale social media data, we develop an efficient query-processing technique to support TCARS. Extensive experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of our models on four real-world dataset...

Yongsheng Zhao, Yifeng Zhang, Rong Xiong & Jianguo Wang 2015, 'Optimal State Estimation of Spinning Ping-Pong Ball Using Continuous Motion Model', IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 64, no. 8, pp. 2208-2216.
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Youssef, AM, Al-Kathery, M & Pradhan, B 2015, 'Assessment of impact of mass movements on the upper Tayyah valley's bridge along Shear escarpment highway, Asir region (Saudi Arabia) using remote sensing data and field investigation', Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 497-533.

Youssef, AM, Al-Kathery, M & Pradhan, B 2015, 'Landslide susceptibility mapping at Al-Hasher area, Jizan (Saudi Arabia) using GIS-based frequency ratio and index of entropy models', Geosciences Journal, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 113-134.
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Youssef, AM, Pradhan, B & Al-Harthi, SG 2015, 'Assessment of rock slope stability and structurally controlled failures along Samma escarpment road, Asir Region (Saudi Arabia)', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 9, pp. 6835-6852.
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Youssef, AM, Pradhan, B & Sefry, SA 2015, 'Remote sensing-based studies coupled with field data reveal urgent solutions to avert the risk of flash floods in the Wadi Qus (east of Jeddah) Kingdom of Saudi Arabia', Natural Hazards, vol. 75, no. 2, pp. 1465-1488.
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Youssef, AM, Pradhan, B, Al-Kathery, M, Bathrellos, GD & Skilodimou, HD 2015, 'Assessment of rockfall hazard at Al-Noor Mountain, Makkah city (Saudi Arabia) using spatio-temporal remote sensing data and field investigation', Journal of African Earth Sciences, vol. 101, pp. 309-321.
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Youssef, AM, Pradhan, B, Jebur, MN & El-Harbi, HM 2015, 'Landslide susceptibility mapping using ensemble bivariate and multivariate statistical models in Fayfa area, Saudi Arabia', Environmental Earth Sciences, vol. 73, no. 7, pp. 3745-3761.
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Youssef, AM, Pradhan, B, Pourghasemi, HR & Abdullahi, S 2015, 'Landslide susceptibility assessment at Wadi Jawrah Basin, Jizan region, Saudi Arabia using two bivariate models in GIS', Geosciences Journal, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 449-469.
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Youssef, AM, Pradhan, B, Sefry, SA & Abdullah, MMA 2015, 'Use of geological and geomorphological parameters in potential suitability assessment for urban planning development at Wadi Al-Asla basin, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 5617-5630.
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Yu, N 2015, 'Separability of Bosonic Systems', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 94, no. 6, p. 060101.
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In this paper, we study the separability of quantum states in bosonic system.Our main tool here is the 'separability witnesses', and a connection between'separability witnesses' and a new kind of positivity of matrices--- 'PowerPositive Matrices' is drawn. Such connection is employed to demonstrate thatmulti-qubit quantum states with Dicke states being its eigenvectors isseparable if and only if two related Hankel matrices are positive semidefinite.By employing this criterion, we are able to show that such state is separableif and only if it's partial transpose is non-negative, which confirms theconjecture in [Wolfe, Yelin, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2014)]. Then, we present a classof bosonic states in $d\otimes d$ system such that for general $d$, determineits separability is NP-hard although verifiable conditions for separability iseasily derived in case $d=3,4$.

Yu, N & Ying, M 2015, 'Optimal simulation of Deutsch gates and the Fredkin gate', PHYSICAL REVIEW A, vol. 91, no. 3.
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Yu, S 2015, 'Special Issue on networking aspects in Big Data', International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 3-4.
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Yu, S, Gu, G, Barnawi, A, Guo, S & Stojmenovic, I 2015, 'Malware Propagation in Large-Scale Networks', IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 170-179.
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Yu, S, Guo, S & Stojmenovic, I 2015, 'Fool Me If You Can: Mimicking Attacks and Anti-Attacks in Cyberspace', IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 139-151.
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Yu, S, Lin, X & Misic, J 2015, 'Networking for Big Data: Part 2', IEEE NETWORK, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 4-5.

Yu, S, Lin, X & Misic, J 2015, 'Networking for big data: part 2 [Guest Editorial]', IEEE Network, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 4-5.
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Yu, S, Wang, G & Zhou, W 2015, 'Modeling malicious activities in cyber space', IEEE Network, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 83-87.
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Yu, X, Jiang, Z, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Zhou, C & Huang, Q 2015, 'Crystallographic Texture Based Analysis of Fe₃O₄/<i>α</i>-Fe₂O₃ Scale Formed on a Hot-rolled Microalloyed Steel', ISIJ International, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 278-284.
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Yu, X, Jiang, Z, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Zhou, C & Huang, Q 2015, 'Effects of grain boundaries in oxide scale on tribological properties of nanoparticles lubrication', Wear, vol. 332-333, pp. 1286-1292.
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Yu, X, Jiang, Z, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Zhou, C & Huang, Q 2015, 'Microstructure and microtexture evolutions of deformed oxide layers on a hot-rolled microalloyed steel', Corrosion Science, vol. 90, pp. 140-152.
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Yu, X, Jiang, Z, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Zhou, J, Zhou, C & Huang, Q 2015, 'A Comparison of Texture Development in an Experimental and Industrial Tertiary Oxide Scale in a Hot Strip Mill', Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 2503-2513.
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Yu, X, Jiang, Z, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Zhou, J, Zhou, C & Huang, Q 2015, 'Dependence of texture development on the grain size of tertiary oxide scales formed on a microalloyed steel', Surface and Coatings Technology, vol. 272, pp. 39-49.
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Yu, X, Jiang, Z, Zhao, J, Wei, D, Zhou, J, Zhou, C & Huang, Q 2015, 'Local strain analysis of the tertiary oxide scale formed on a hot-rolled steel strip via EBSD', Surface and Coatings Technology, vol. 277, pp. 151-159.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V.. This work presents a fine microstructure and local misorientation study of various oxide phases in the tertiary oxide scale formed on a hot-rolled steel strip via electron back-scattering diffraction (EBSD). Local strain in individual grains of four phases, ferrite (α-Fe), wustite (FeO), magnetite (Fe3O4) and hematite (α-Fe2O3), has been systematically analysed. The results reveal that Fe3O4 has a lower local strain than α-Fe2O3, in particular, on the surface and inner layers of the oxide scale. The multiphase oxides along the cracking or α-Fe2O3 penetration generally develop a high local misorientation. Localised stain along the cracks demonstrates that the misorientation tends to be strong near grain boundaries. The high fraction of small Fe3O4 grains accumulate at the oxide-substrate interface, which leads to a dramatic increase in the intensity of local stain. This variation is due mainly to the phase transformation among the oxide phases, i.e., the Fe3O4 particles during their nucleation and growth. The combined action of stress relief and re-oxidisation is proposed to explain the formation of Fe3O4 seam at the oxide-steel interface. The present study offers an intriguing insight into the deformation behaviour of the tertiary oxide scale formed on steels, and may help with understanding the stress-aided oxidation effect of metal alloys.

Yu, X, Zhang, S, Zhao, X & Zhang, L 2015, 'Removing blur kernel noise via a hybrid ℓ p norm', Journal of Electronic Imaging, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 013011-013011.
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Yu, Y, Li, Y & Li, J 2015, 'Forecasting hysteresis behaviours of magnetorheological elastomer base isolator utilizing a hybrid model based on support vector regression and improved particle swarm optimization', SMART MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 1-15.
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© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd. Due to its inherent hysteretic characteristics, the main challenge for the application of a magnetorheological elastomer- (MRE) based isolator is the exploitation of the accurate model, which could fully describe its unique behaviour. This paper proposes a nonparametric model for a MRE-based isolator based on support vector regression (SVR). The trained identification model is to forecast the shear force of the MRE-based isolator online; thus, the dynamic response from the MRE-based isolator can be well captured. In order to improve the forecast capacity of the model, a type of improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) is employed to optimize the parameters in SVR. Eventually, the trained model is applied to the MRE-based isolator modelling with testing data. The results indicate that the proposed hybrid model has a better generalization capacity and better recognition accuracy than other conventional models, and it is an effective and suitable approach for forecasting the behaviours of a MRE-based isolator.

Yu, Y, Li, Y & Li, J 2015, 'Nonparametric modeling of magnetorheological elastomer base isolator based on artificial neural network optimized by ant colony algorithm', Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, vol. 26, no. 14, pp. 1789-1798.
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Laminated magnetorheological elastomer base isolator is regarded as one of the most promising candidates for realizing adaptive base isolation for civil structures. However, the intrinsic hysteretic and nonlinear behavior of magnetorheological elastomer base isolators imposes challenge for adopting the device to accomplish high-accuracy performance in structural control. Therefore, it is essential to develop an accurate model for symbolizing this unique characteristic before designing a feedback controller. So far, some classical parametric models, such as Bouc–Wen, Dahl, and LuGre, have been proposed to depict the hysteretic response of magnetorheological devices, that is, magnetorheological damper, which may also be used for describing the nonlinear behavior of magnetorheological elastomer base isolator. However, the parameter identification is difficult to implement due to the nonlinear differential equations existing in these models. Considering this problem, this article proposes a nonparametric model, that is, an artificial neural network–based model with 3 input neurons, 18 hidden neurons, and 1 output neuron, to predict the magnetorheological elastomer isolator behavior. In this model, the ant colony algorithm is employed for model training to obtain the optimal weights based on the force–displacement/velocity data sampled from the magnetorheological elastomer isolator. Finally, experimental data are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed artificial neural network–based model with the good forecasting results.

Yu, Y, Li, Y & Li, J 2015, 'Parameter identification and sensitivity analysis of an improved LuGre friction model for magnetorheological elastomer base isolator', Meccanica, vol. 50, no. 11, pp. 2691-2707.
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© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. The recently-developed magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) base isolator can provide an instant change in the shear modulus and damping property under applied magnetic field, which makes it as an ideal device for the semi-active control in buildings and bridges. Previous studies show that this new device is featured with its nonlinear and hysteretic responses, and it is necessary to sufficiently understand its behaviour when adopting this device in control system. Although there are several models presented to predict the hysteresis of MRE base isolator, they are always suffered from some application limitations, e.g. high computation demand or complex model. To better interpret this complicated feature of the device, this work presents an improved LuGre friction model, which has been successfully used in modelling other magnetorheological device i.e. MR damper. In addition, an improved fruit fly optimization algorithm (IFFOA) is also proposed to identify the model parameters. In the improved algorithm, a transfer factor based on a self-adaptive step is added together with a three-dimensional searching space. This improvement can enhance the convergence rate of the algorithm and avoid the local optimum. Furthermore, to reduce the complexity of the model, the local and global parameter sensitivity analyses are conducted for model simplification. Eventually, the experimental measurements of device displacement, velocity and shear force are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed model and IFFOA.

Yu, Y, Li, Y & Li, J 2015, 'Parameter identification of a novel strain stiffening model for magnetorheological elastomer base isolator utilizing enhanced particle swarm optimization', Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, vol. 26, no. 18, pp. 2446-2462.
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This article presents a novel model to describe the nonlinear relationships between shear force and displacement/velocity in a magnetorheological elastomer base isolator. The proposed model, containing a strain stiffening element, is able to portray the distinct dynamic behaviors of magnetorheological elastomer base isolator. To identify the model parameters, an enhanced particle swarm optimization is used on force–displacement/velocity data sampled under different loading conditions. In this algorithm, a self-adaptive inertia weight replaces the general linear weight, enhancing the convergence rate of iteration process. Besides, the mutation operator in genetic algorithm is adopted for finding global optimum. Testing data of the device displacement, velocity and force from magnetorheological elastomer base isolator are utilized to validate the proposed model and corresponding parameter identification algorithm.

Yuan, D, Wang, S, Zhang, H, Tao, X, Zhu, J & Guo, Y 2015, 'The Harmonic Suppression Characteristic Analysis of a Phase-Shifting Reactor in Rectifier System', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 1-4.
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Yuan, L-L, Han, J-T, Liu, J, Wei, D-B & Abathun, MZ 2015, 'Titanium effect on the microstructure and properties of laminated high boron steel plates', International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy, and Materials, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 492-499.
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Abstract High-boron steel is an important material used for thermal neutron shielding. The appropriate amount of added boron must be determined because excessive boron may deteriorate the steel’s workability. A uniform microstructure can be formed by adding titanium to boron steel. In this study, casting and hot rolling were used to fabricate laminated high-boron steel plates whose cores contained 2.25wt% boron and 0wt%–7.9wt% titanium. The effects of titanium content and hot-rolling and heat-treatment processes on the microstructure and properties of the laminated plates were studied. The results indicated that the optimum titanium content was 5.7wt% when the boron content was 2.25wt%, and that the best overall properties were obtained after heat treatment at 1100°C for 4 h. The tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation at the specified temperature and holding time were as high as 526.88 MPa, 219.36 MPa, and 29%, respectively.

Yuan, X, Sun, H & Wang, X 2015, 'Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in Patients with Mirror-Imaging Dextrocardia', Journal of Cardiac Surgery, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 643-645.
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Yuan, X, Tao, Y, Zhao, JP, Liu, XS, Xiong, WN, Xie, JG, Ni, W, Xu, YJ & Liu, HG 2015, 'Long-term efficacy of a rural community-based integrated intervention for prevention and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a cluster randomized controlled trial in China's rural areas', Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, vol. 48, no. 11, pp. 1023-1031.
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This study aimed to assess the efficacy of a rural community-based integrated intervention for early prevention and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in China. This 18-year cluster-randomized controlled trial encompassing 15 villages included 1008 patients (454 men and 40 women in the intervention group [mean age, 54 ± 10 years]; 482 men and 32 women in the control group [mean age, 53 ± 10 years]) with confirmed COPD or at risk for COPD. Villages were randomly assigned to the intervention or the control group, and study participants residing within the villages received treatment accordingly. Intervention group patients took part in a program that included systematic health education, smoking cessation counseling, and education on management of COPD. Control group patients received usual care. The groups were compared after 18 years regarding the incidence of COPD, decline in lung function, and mortality of COPD. COPD incidence was lower in the intervention group than in the control group (10% vs 16%, <0.05). A decline in lung function was also significantly delayed in the intervention group compared to the control group of COPD and high-risk patients. The intervention group showed significant improvement in smoking cessation compared with the control group, and smokers in the intervention group had lower smoking indices than in the control group (350 vs 450, <0.05). The intervention group also had a significantly lower cumulative COPD-related death rate than the control group (37% vs 47%, <0.05). A rural community-based integrated intervention is effective in reducing the incidence of COPD among those at risk, delaying a decline in lung function in COPD patients and those at risk, and reducing mortality of COPD.

Yuan, X, Teng, X & Hou, J 2015, 'Abstract 17722: Recipient Treatment With Donepezil, an Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitor, Abolishes Donor Heart Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury and Chronic Graft Failure Through TNF Inhibition in an Syngenic Rat Model', Circulation, vol. 132, no. suppl_3.
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Introduction: Ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) may have deleterious consequences for donor heart. The underlying mechanisms involve inflammation that may culminate in primary or chronic graft failure. Hypothesis: Donepezil, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, can protect the post-transplanted donor heart by inhibiting systemic inflammation of the recipients. Methods: Here, we report in Lewis to Lewis rat syngenic heart transplantation model that ischemia/reperfusion injury resulted in primary and chronic graft failure that was prevented by recipient treatment with peroral single-dose Donepezil. Results: Donepezil inhibited the release of cytokines (TNF, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL18), CD11b/18 positive cell infiltration and myocardial apoptosis in the recipient rats one week postoperatively. One month after transplantation, the graft survival rate in Donepezil group was 46.7% than that in SHAM group (P<0.05); the EF value in Donepezil group was 13% higher than that in SHAM group (P<0.05). The cardiac fibrosis grade was 1 grade lower in Donepezil group than that in SHAM group (P<0.05). Methyllycaconitine blocked the actions of Donepezil, suggesting that the donor heart protection effects are α7-nAChRs-dependent. Conclusions: Our results reveal that recipient treatment with Donepezil protects donor hearts through TNF inhibition and TNF related downstream pathophysiological pathways. These results suggest a novel, clinically feasible strategy to protect donor hearts from IRI.

Yue, XD, Cao, LB, Miao, DQ, Chen, YF & Xu, B 2015, 'Multi-view attribute reduction model for traffic bottleneck analysis', Knowledge-Based Systems, vol. 86, pp. 1-10.
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Yusof, NM, Pradhan, B, Shafri, HZM, Jebur, MN & Yusoff, Z 2015, 'Spatial landslide hazard assessment along the Jelapang Corridor of the North-South Expressway in Malaysia using high resolution airborne LiDAR data', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 8, no. 11, pp. 9789-9800.
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Yusoff, S, Pradhan, B, Manap, MA & Shafri, HZM 2015, 'Regional gold potential mapping in Kelantan (Malaysia) using probabilistic based models and GIS', Open Geosciences, vol. 7, no. 1.
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Abstract The aim of this study is to test and compare twoprobabilistic based models (frequency ratio and weightsof-evidence) with regard to regional gold potential mappingat Kelantan, Malaysia. Until now these models havenot been used for the purpose of mapping gold potentialareas in Malaysia. This study analyzed the spatial relationshipbetween gold deposits and geological factors such aslithology, faults, geochemical and geophysical data in geographicalinformation system (GIS) software. About eight(8) gold deposits and five (5) related factors are identifiedand quantified for their spatial relationships. Then, all factorswere combined to generate a predictive gold potentialmap. The predictive maps were then validated by comparingthem with known gold deposits using receiver operatingcharacteristics (ROC) and “area under the curve”(AUC) graphs. The results of validation showed accuraciesof 80% for the frequency ratio and 74% for the weightsof-evidence model, respectively. The results demonstratedthe usefulness of frequency ratio and weights-of-evidencemodeling techniques in mineral exploration work to discoverunknown gold deposits in Kelantan, Malaysia.

Yuwei Wu, Yunde Jia, Peihua Li, Jian Zhang & Junsong Yuan 2015, 'Manifold Kernel Sparse Representation of Symmetric Positive-Definite Matrices and Its Applications', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 24, no. 11, pp. 3729-3741.
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Yuwono, M, Guo, Y, Wall, J, Li, J, West, S, Platt, G & Su, SW 2015, 'Unsupervised feature selection using swarm intelligence and consensus clustering for automatic fault detection and diagnosis in Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 34, pp. 402-425.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Various sensory and control signals in a Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system are closely interrelated which give rise to severe redundancies between original signals. These redundancies may cripple the generalization capability of an automatic fault detection and diagnosis (AFDD) algorithm. This paper proposes an unsupervised feature selection approach and its application to AFDD in a HVAC system. Using Ensemble Rapid Centroid Estimation (ERCE), the important features are automatically selected from original measurements based on the relative entropy between the low- and high-frequency features. The materials used is the experimental HVAC fault data from the ASHRAE-1312-RP datasets containing a total of 49 days of various types of faults and corresponding severity. The features selected using ERCE (Median normalized mutual information (NMI) = 0.019) achieved the least redundancies compared to those selected using manual selection (Median NMI = 0.0199) Complete Linkage (Median NMI = 0.1305), Evidence Accumulation K-means (Median NMI = 0.04) and Weighted Evidence Accumulation K-means (Median NMI = 0.048). The effectiveness of the feature selection method is further investigated using two well-established time-sequence classification algorithms: (a) Nonlinear Auto-Regressive Neural Network with eXogenous inputs and distributed time delays (NARX-TDNN); and (b) Hidden Markov Models (HMM); where weighted average sensitivity and specificity of: (a) higher than 99% and 96% for NARX-TDNN; and (b) higher than 98% and 86% for HMM is observed. The proposed feature selection algorithm could potentially be applied to other model-based systems to improve the fault detection performance.

Zahid, R, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Mufti, RA, Kalam, MA & Gulzar, M 2015, 'Effect of Lubricant Formulations on the Tribological Performance of Self-Mated Doped DLC Contacts: a review', Tribology Letters, vol. 58, no. 2.
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Zarzour, P, Boelen, L, Luciani, F, Beck, D, Sakthianandeswaren, A, Mouradov, D, Sieber, OM, Hawkins, NJ, Hesson, LB, Ward, RL & Wong, JWH 2015, 'Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Array Profiling Identifies Distinct Chromosomal Aberration Patterns Across Colorectal Adenomas and Carcinomas', GENES CHROMOSOMES & CANCER, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 303-314.
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Zeb, BA & Esselle, KP 2015, 'High‐gain dual‐band dual‐polarised electromagnetic band gap resonator antenna with an all‐dielectric superstructure', IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 1059-1065.
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Zeb, BA, Hashmi, RM & Esselle, KP 2015, 'Wideband gain enhancement of slot antenna using one unprinted dielectric superstrate', Electronics Letters, vol. 51, no. 15, pp. 1146-1148.
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Zeb, BA, Nikolic, N & Esselle, KP 2015, 'A High-Gain Dual-Band EBG Resonator Antenna with Circular Polarization', IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 14, pp. 108-111.
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Zeng, D, Guo, S, Barnawi, A, Yu, S & Stojmenovic, I 2015, 'An Improved Stochastic Modeling of Opportunistic Routing in Vehicular CPS', IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 64, no. 7, pp. 1819-1829.
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Zeng, D, Guo, S, Huang, H, Yu, S & Leung, VCM 2015, 'Optimal VM placement in data centres with architectural and resource constraints', International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 392-392.
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Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Recent advance in virtualisation technology enables service provisioning in a flexible way by consolidating several virtual machines (VMs) into a single physical machine (PM). The inter-VM communications are inevitable when a group of VMs in a data centre provide services in a collaborative manner. With the increasing demands of such intra-data-centre traffics, it becomes essential to study the VM-to-PM placement such that the aggregated communication cost within a data centre is minimised. Such optimisation problem is proved NP-hard and formulated as an integer programming with quadratic constraints in this paper. Different from existing work, our formulation takes into consideration of data-centre architecture, inter-VM traffic pattern, and resource capacity of PMs. Furthermore, a heuristic algorithm is proposed and its high efficiency is extensively validated.

Zeng, Y, Chen, C, Liu, W, Fu, Q, Han, Z, Li, Y, Feng, S, Li, X, Qi, C, Wu, J, Wang, D, Corbett, C, Chan, BP, Ruan, D & Du, Y 2015, 'Injectable microcryogels reinforced alginate encapsulation of mesenchymal stromal cells for leak-proof delivery and alleviation of canine disc degeneration', Biomaterials, vol. 59, pp. 53-65.
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In situ crosslinked thermo-responsive hydrogel applied for minimally invasive treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) may not prevent extrusion of cell suspension from injection site due to high internal pressure of intervertebral disc (IVD), causing treatment failure or osteophyte formation. In this study, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were encapsulated in alginate precursor and loaded into previously developed macroporous PGEDA-derived microcryogels (PMs) to form three-dimensional (3D) microscale cellular niches, enabling non-thermo-responsive alginate hydrogel to be injectable. The PMs reinforced alginate hydrogel showed superior elasticity compared to alginate hydrogel alone and could well protect encapsulated cells through injection. Chondrogenic committed MSCs in the injectable microniches expressed higher level of nucleus pulposus (NP) cell markers compared to 2D cultured cells. In an exvivo organ culture model, injection of MSCs-laden PMs into NP tissue prevented cell leakage, improved cell retention and survival compared to free cell injection. In canine IVDD models, alleviated degeneration was observed in MSCs-laden PMs treated group after six months which was superior to other treated groups. Our results provide in-depth demonstration of injectable alginate hydrogel reinforced by PMs as a leak-proof cell delivery system for augmented regenerative therapy of IVDD in canine models.

Zhan, Y, Guo, Y, Zhu, J & Li, L 2015, 'Performance comparison of input current ripple reduction methods in UPS applications with hybrid PEM fuel cell/supercapacitor power sources', International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 64, pp. 96-103.
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Zhan, Y, Guo, Y, Zhu, J & Li, L 2015, 'Power and energy management of grid/PEMFC/battery/supercapacitor hybrid power sources for UPS applications', International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 67, pp. 598-612.
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Zhang, F, Wu, C, Li, Z-X & Zhao, X-L 2015, 'Residual axial capacity of CFDST columns infilled with UHPFRC after close-range blast loading', Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 96, pp. 314-327.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Concrete-filled double-skin tubes (CFDST) consist of two concentrically placed steel tubes with concrete filled in between and they have more and more commonly been used in the field of civil engineering in recent years. A number of recent researches evidenced the excellent performance of CFDST columns under a variety of loading conditions. However, very limited knowledge is known about the residual axial capacity of CFDST columns following severe blast loadings. This paper presents an experimental study on the residual behaviours of ultra-high performance concrete infilled double-skin steel tubular columns after close-in blast loading. In total, eight CFDST columns, including 3 square ones and 5 circular ones, were first tested under different blast loads with two axial load levels. After the blast tests, all CFDST columns were transported to the laboratory and each of them was then subjected to static axially compressive load until failure. It was found that the CFDST columns with smaller permanent displacement had larger peak residual axial capacity and the CFDST columns which were not subjected to axial load during the blast test exhibited more ductile behaviour than those which were axially loaded during the blast test.

Zhang, F, Wu, C, Wang, H & Zhou, Y 2015, 'Numerical simulation of concrete filled steel tube columns against BLAST loads', Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 92, pp. 82-92.
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Zhang, F, Wu, C, Zhao, X-L, Li, Z-X, Heidarpour, A & Wang, H 2015, 'Numerical Modeling of Concrete-Filled Double-Skin Steel Square Tubular Columns under Blast Loading', Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, vol. 29, no. 5.
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Zhang, G & Piccardi, M 2015, 'Structural SVM with Partial Ranking for Activity Segmentation and Classification', IEEE Signal Processing Letters, vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 2344-2348.
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© 1994-2012 IEEE. Structural SVM is an extension of the support vector machine for the joint prediction of structured labels from multiple measurements. Following a large margin principle, the training of structural SVM ensures that the ground-Truth labeling of each sample receives a score higher than that of any other labeling. However, no specific score ranking is imposed among the other labelings. In this letter, we extend the standard constraint set of structural SVM with constraints between 'almost-correct' labelings and less desirable ones to obtain a partial-ranking structural SVM (PR-SSVM) approach. Experimental results on action segmentation and classification with two challenging datasets (the TUM Kitchen mocap dataset and the CMU-MMAC video dataset) show that the proposed method achieves better detection and false alarm rates and higher F1 scores than both the conventional structural SVM and a comparable unstructured predictor. The proposed method also achieves higher accuracy than the state of the art on these datasets in excess of 14 and 31 percentage points, respectively.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Bi-level Multi-follower Decision Making', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 65-104.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. A bi-level decision problem may involve multiple decision entities (decision units or decision makers) at the lower level, and these followers may have different reactions for a possible decision made by the leader.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Bi-level Multi-leader Decision Making', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 105-120.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. In real-world applications, a bi-level decision problem may involve multiple decision entities on the upper level, that is, the bi-level decision problem has multiple leaders. The leaders may have their individual decision variables, objective functions and/or constraint conditions. This kind of bi-level decision problem is called a bi-level multi-leader (BLML) decision problem.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Bi-level Pricing and Replenishment in Supply Chains', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 325-336.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. Effective pricing and replenishment strategies in supply chain management are the keys to business success. Notably, with rapid technological innovation and strong competition in hi-tech industries such as computer and communication organizations, the upstream component price and the down-stream product cost usually decline significantly with time. As a result, effective pricing and replenishment decision models are very important in supply chain management. This chapter first establishes a bi-level pricing and replenishment strategy optimization model in hi-tech industry. Then, two bi-level pricing models for pricing problems, in which the buyer and the vendor in a supply chain are respectively designated as the leader and the follower, are presented. Experiments illustrate that bi-level decision techniques can solve problems defined by these models and can achieve a profit increase under some situations, compared with the existing methods.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Bi-level Programming for Competitive Strategic Bidding Optimization in Electricity Markets', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 315-324.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. We focus on the application of bi-level programming in electricity markets (power market) in this chapter. Competitive strategic bidding optimization of electric power plants (companies) is becoming one of the key issues in electricity markets. This chapter presents a strategic bidding optimization technique developed by applying the bi-level programming. By analyzing the strategic bidding behavior of power plants, we understand that this bidding problem includes several power plants and only one market operator respectively known as multiple leaders and single follower.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Bi-level Programming Models and Algorithms', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 47-62.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. This chapter introduces basic definitions, theorems, models and algorithms for bi-level programming (bi-level decision-making) and also basic models of multi-level programming, which will be used in the remaining chapters of this book.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Fuzzy Multi-objective Bi-level Goal Programming', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 229-247.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. we presented the definitions, solutions, and algorithms for the fuzzy multi-objective bi-level programming (FMO-BLP) problems. This chapter still addresses the fuzzy multi-objective bi-level problem but applies a goal programming approach. We call it fuzzy multi-objective bi-level goal programming (FMO-BLGP). This chapter will discuss related definitions, solution concepts, and algorithms for the FMO-BLGP problem and will focus on the linear version of the FMO-BLGP problem. First, a fuzzy ranking method is used to give a mathematical definition for a FMO-BLGP problem, and then, based on a fuzzy vectors distance measure definition, a fuzzy bi-level goal programming (FBLGP) model is proposed. An algorithm for solving the FMO-BLGP problem is also developed.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Optimization Models', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 25-46.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. To model and solve a bi-level or multi-level optimization problem, we have to first understand basic single-level optimization models and related solution methods. This chapter introduces related concepts, models and solution methods of basic single-level optimization including linear programming, non-linear programming, multi-objective programming, goal programming, Stackelberg game theory, and particle swarm optimization. These knowledge will be used in the rest of the book.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Rule-Set-Based Bi-level Decision Making', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 251-286.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. As discussed in previous chapters, bi-level decision-making problems are normally modeled by bi-level programming.

Zhang, G, Lu, J & Gao, Y 2015, 'Tri-level Multi-follower Decision Making', Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol. 82, pp. 121-171.
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. In a tri-level hierarchical decision problem, each decision entity at one level has its objective, constraints and decision variables affected in part by the decision entities at the other two levels. The choice of values for its variables may allow it to influence the decisions made at other levels, and thereby improve its own objective. We called this a tri-level decision problem. When multiple decision entities are involved at the middle and bottom levels, the top-level entity’s decision will be affected not only by these followers’ individual reactions but also by the relationships among the followers. We call this problem a tri-level multi-follower (TLMF) decision.

Zhang, H, Yuan, X, Zhang, H, Chen, S, Zhao, Y, Hua, K, Rao, C, Wang, W, Sun, H, Hu, S & Zheng, Z 2015, 'Efficacy of Long-Term β-Blocker Therapy for Secondary Prevention of Long-Term Outcomes After Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery', Circulation, vol. 131, no. 25, pp. 2194-2201.
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Background— Conflicting results from recent observational studies have raised questions concerning the benefit of β-blockers for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Furthermore, the efficacy of long-term β-blocker therapy in CABG patients after hospital discharge is uncertain. Methods and Results— The study included 5926 consecutive patients who underwent CABG and were discharged alive. The prevalence and consistency of β-blocker use were determined in patients with and without a history of myocardial infarction (MI). β-Blockers were always used in 1280 patients (50.9%) with and 1642 patients (48.1%) without previous MI after CABG. Compared with always users (n=2922, 49.3%), the risk of all-cause death was significantly higher among inconsistent β-blocker users (hazard ratio [HR], 1.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.50–2.57), and never using β-blockers was associated with increased risk of both all-cause death (HR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.01–2.00) and the composite of adverse cardiovascular events (HR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.10–1.50). In the cohort without MI, the HR for all-cause death was 1.70 (95% CI, 1.17–2.48) in inconsistent users and 1.23 (95% CI, 0.76–1.99) in never users. In the MI cohort, mortality was higher for inconsistent users (HR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.43–3.20) and for never users (HR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.07–2.63). Consistent results were obtained in equivalent sensitivity analyses. Conclusions— In patients with or without previous MI undergoing CABG, the consistent use of β-blockers was associated with a lower risk of long-term mortality and adverse cardiovascular events. Strategies should be developed to understand and improve discharge prescription of β...

Zhang, J, Huang, X, Dyadyuk, V & Guo, Y 2015, 'Massive hybrid antenna array for millimeter-wave cellular communications', IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 79-87.
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© 2002-2012 IEEE. A massive hybrid array consists of multiple analog subarrays, with each subarray having its digital processing chain. It offers the potential advantage of balancing cost and performance for massive arrays and therefore serves as an attractive solution for future millimeter-wave (mm- Wave) cellular communications. On one hand, using beamforming analog subarrays such as phased arrays, the hybrid configuration can effectively collect or distribute signal energy in sparse mm-Wave channels. On the other hand, multiple digital chains in the configuration provide multiplexing capability and more beamforming flexibility to the system. In this article, we discuss several important issues and the state-of-the-art development for mm-Wave hybrid arrays, such as channel modeling, capacity characterization, applications of various smart antenna techniques for single-user and multiuser communications, and practical hardware design. We investigate how the hybrid array architecture and special mm-Wave channel property can be exploited to design suboptimal but practical massive antenna array schemes. We also compare two main types of hybrid arrays, interleaved and localized arrays, and recommend that the localized array is a better option in terms of overall performance and hardware feasibility.

Zhang, J, Jin, J, Cooney, R, Fu, Q, Qiao, GG, Thomas, S & Merkel, TC 2015, 'Synthesis of perfectly alternating copolymers for polymers of intrinsic microporosity', Polymer Chemistry, vol. 6, no. 28, pp. 5003-5008.
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A two-pot synthetic strategy was developed to accomplish sequence control in a completely alternating fashion for co-polymers of intrinsic microporosity.

Zhang, J, Yang, J, Qian, J & Xu, J 2015, 'Nearest orthogonal matrix representation for face recognition', Neurocomputing, vol. 151, pp. 471-480.
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Zhang, K, Chen, Y, Zhang, L, Yao, J, Ni, W, Wu, H, Zhao, H & Lee, J 2015, 'Well pattern optimization using NEWUOA algorithm', Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, vol. 134, pp. 257-272.
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Zhang, N, Wang, S, Chen, X, Shi, Q, Li, J, Zhu, J, Wang, S, Yang, B, Guo, Y & Zhu, J 2015, 'Study on Neural Regeneration Effect of Rat by Using Pulsed Functional Magnetic Stimulation', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 11, pp. 1-4.
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Zhang, S, Sui, Y, Yu, X, Zhao, S & Zhang, L 2015, 'Hybrid support vector machines for robust object tracking', Pattern Recognition, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 2474-2488.
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Zhang, S, Sui, Y, Zhao, S, Yu, X & Zhang, L 2015, 'Multi-local-task learning with global regularization for object tracking', Pattern Recognition, vol. 48, no. 12, pp. 3881-3894.
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Zhang, S, Tong, C-X, Li, X & Sheng, D 2015, 'A new method for studying the evolution of particle breakage', Géotechnique, vol. 65, no. 11, pp. 911-922.
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This paper proposes a simple method for studying the evolution of particle breakage. A two-parameter statistical model is first proposed to describe the distribution of new particles generated from breakage of an initially uniformly graded sample. A Markov chain model is then proposed to describe the particle size evolution of non-uniformly graded samples. The two-parameter statistical model is shown to be able to capture different breakage patterns such as asperity breakage and particle splitting observed during breakage of uniformly graded samples. In the Markov chain model, it is shown that the concept of ‘effective breakage probability’, proposed to define the relative breakage extent of the whole sample, is comparable to a well-established breakage index in the literature. Both models are successfully validated against experimental data, where the characteristics of the model parameters and the engineering implications are discussed.

Zhang, S, Yu, X, Sui, Y, Zhao, S & Zhang, L 2015, 'Object Tracking with Multi-View Support Vector Machines', IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, pp. 1-1.
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Zhang, T, Du, J, Wang, J, Bai, D, Guo, YJ & He, Y 2015, '30 GHz HTS Receiver Front-End Based on Monolithic Josephson Mixer', IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 1-5.
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© 2014 IEEE. A compact, high-gain, and low-noise Ka band HTS Josephson junction-based receiver front-end module for wireless communication is presented in this paper. The front-end module consists of biasing circuits, a semiconductor low-noise amplifier, and a monolithic HTS circuit consisting of an Josephson mixer, bandpass and lowpass filters. The semiconductor LNA in the first stage is applied to achieve a low noise figure of the whole front-end module. Integration of the Josephson mixer with a number of HTS passive components on a single chip improves the coupling efficiency and reduces the connection losses between the components. The total dimension of the packaged front-end module is below 25 mm × 20 mm × 15 mm, which is very compact. Measurement result shows that the front-end module has an overall conversion gain around 40 dB, and a low noise figure close to 0 dB with an LO driving power around -38 dBm at 40 K.

Zhang, T, Yang, Z, Jia, W, Wu, Q, Yang, J & He, X 2015, 'Fast and robust head detection with arbitrary pose and occlusion', Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 74, no. 21, pp. 9365-9385.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Head detection in images and videos plays an important role in a wide range of computer vision and surveillance applications. Aiming to detect heads with arbitrarily occluded faces and head pose, in this paper, we propose a novel Gaussian energy function based algorithm for elliptical head contour detection. Starting with the localization of head and shoulder by an improved Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) approach, the precise head contour is obtained by making use of the Omega shape formed from the head and shoulder. Experimental results on several benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed idea over the state-of-the-art in both detection accuracy and processing speed, even though there are various types of severe occlusions in faces.

Zhang, X, Krabbenhoft, K, Sheng, D & Li, W 2015, 'Numerical simulation of a flow-like landslide using the particle finite element method', Computational Mechanics, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 167-177.
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Zhang, X, Sheng, D, Kouretzis, GP, Krabbenhoft, K & Sloan, SW 2015, 'Numerical investigation of the cylinder movement in granular matter', Physical Review E, vol. 91, no. 2.
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Zhang, Y & Zhao, W 2015, 'Study on the solution properties of ZnO QDs-embedded MEO2MA m –HEMA n –MEO2MA m triblock copolymers', Iranian Polymer Journal, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 481-490.
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Zhang, Y, Xiong, R, Zhao, Y & Wang, J 2015, 'Real-Time Spin Estimation of Ping-Pong Ball Using Its Natural Brand', IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 64, no. 8, pp. 2280-2290.
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Zhang, Y, Xu, C, Yu, S, Li, H & Zhang, X 2015, 'SCLPV: Secure Certificateless Public Verification for Cloud-Based Cyber-Physical-Social Systems Against Malicious Auditors', IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 159-170.
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© 2014 IEEE. Cyber-physical-social system (CPSS) allows individuals to share personal information collected from not only cyberspace but also physical space. This has resulted in generating numerous data at a user's local storage. However, it is very expensive for users to store large data sets, and it also causes problems in data management. Therefore, it is of critical importance to outsource the data to cloud servers, which provides users an easy, cost-effective, and flexible way to manage data, whereas users lose control on their data once outsourcing their data to cloud servers, which poses challenges on integrity of outsourced data. Many schemes have been proposed to allow a third-party auditor to verify data integrity using the public keys of users. Most of these schemes bear a strong assumption: the auditors are honest and reliable, and thereby are vulnerability in the case that auditors are malicious. Moreover, in most of these schemes, an auditor needs to manage users certificates to choose the correct public keys for verification. In this paper, we propose a secure certificateless public integrity verification scheme (SCLPV). The SCLPV is the first work that simultaneously supports certificateless public verification and resistance against malicious auditors to verify the integrity of outsourced data in CPSS. A formal security proof proves the correctness and security of our scheme. In addition, an elaborate performance analysis demonstrates that the SCLPV is efficient and practical. Compared with the only existing certificateless public verification scheme (CLPV), the SCLPV provides stronger security guarantees in terms of remedying the security vulnerability of the CLPV and resistance against malicious auditors. In comparison with the best of integrity verification scheme achieving resistance against malicious auditors, the communication cost between the auditor and the cloud server of the SCLPV is independent of the size of the processed data, meanw...

Zhang, Z, Concha, OP & Piccardi, M 2015, 'Tracking people under heavy occlusions by layered data association', Multimedia Tools and Applications, vol. 74, no. 17, pp. 7239-7259.
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© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. One of the main difficulties in video tracking of people arises in scenarios where targets are repeatedly and extensively occluded by other moving objects. These types of occlusions significantly affect the measurements of the person’s position, motion, shape and appearance, posing major challenges to correct tracking and data association. In this paper, we present a method for tracking people in videos based on a simplified part-based model only loosely associated with body parts. Data association is provided by a layered data association approach which performs association at feature, part and global levels in a hierarchical fashion. Occlusions are detected and managed at the part level, with corresponding model update strategies. In addition, the tracker does not make any assumption on the target’s motion direction, thus allowing tracking to withstand abrupt sideways movements and changes of directions that frequently occur in busy scenes. Experimental results against popular trackers such as mean shift, particle filters and the recent k-shortest paths (KSP) tracker based on a variety of performance indicators and datasets including ETISEO, AVSS 2007 and PETS 2009 show the effectiveness of the proposed tracker.

Zhang, Z, Yu, JX, Qin, L, Chang, L & Lin, X 2015, 'I/O efficient: computing SCCs in massive graphs.', VLDB J., vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 245-270.
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© 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. A strongly connected component (SCC) is a maximal subgraph of a directed graph G in which every pair of nodes is reachable from each other in the SCC. With such a property, a general directed graph can be represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG) by contracting every SCC of G to a node in DAG. In many real applications that need graph pattern matching, topological sorting, or reachability query processing, the best way to deal with a general directed graph is to deal with its DAG representation. Therefore, finding all SCCs in a directed graph G is a critical operation. The existing in-memory algorithms based on depth first search (DFS) can find all SCCs in linear time with respect to the size of a graph. However, when a graph cannot reside entirely in the main memory, the existing external or semi-external algorithms to find all SCCs have limitation to achieve high I/O efficiency. In this paper, we study new I/O-efficient semi-external algorithms to find all SCCs for a massive directed graph G that cannot reside in main memory entirely. To overcome the deficiency of the existing DFS-based semi-external algorithm that heavily relies on a total order, we explore a weak order based on which we investigate new algorithms. We propose a new two-phase algorithm, namely, tree construction and tree search. In the tree construction phase, a spanning tree of G can be constructed in bounded number of sequential scans of G. In the tree search phase, it needs to sequentially scan the graph once to find all SCCs. In addition, we propose a new single-phase algorithm, which combines the tree construction and tree search phases into a single phase, with three new optimization techniques. They are early acceptance, early rejection, and batch processing. By the single-phase algorithm with the new optimization techniques, we can significantly reduce the number of I/Os and the CPU cost. We prove the correctness of the algorithms...

Zhao, F, Wang, B, Tang, Y, Ge, H, Huang, Z & Liu, HK 2015, 'Niobium doped anatase TiO₂ as an effective anode material for sodium-ion batteries', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 3, no. 45, pp. 22969-22974.
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Nb-doped anatase TiO₂ anode materials with high reversible sodium storage capacities, excellent cycling stability and rate capability were synthesized by a sol–gel method.

Zhao, L, Huang, S, Sun, Y, Yan, L & Dissanayake, G 2015, 'ParallaxBA: bundle adjustment using parallax angle feature parametrization', The International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 34, no. 4-5, pp. 493-516.
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The main contribution of this paper is a novel feature parametrization based on parallax angles for bundle adjustment (BA) in structure and motion estimation from monocular images. It is demonstrated that under certain conditions, describing feature locations using their Euclidean XYZ coordinates or using inverse depth in BA leads to ill-conditioned normal equations as well as objective functions that have very small gradients with respect to some of the parameters describing feature locations. The proposed parallax angle feature parametrization in BA (ParallaxBA) avoids both of the above problems leading to better convergence properties and more accurate motion and structure estimates. Simulation and experimental datasets are used to demonstrate the impact of different feature parametrizations on BA, and the improved convergence, efficiency and accuracy of the proposed ParallaxBA algorithm when compared with some existing BA packages such as SBA, sSBA and g2o. The C/C++ source code of ParallaxBA is available on OpenSLAM ( https://openslam.org/ ).

Zhao, L, Huang, S, Yan, L & Dissanayake, G 2015, 'A new feature parametrization for monocular SLAM using line features', Robotica, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 513-536.
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SUMMARYThis paper presents a new monocular SLAM algorithm that uses straight lines extracted from images to represent the environment. A line is parametrized by two pairs of azimuth and elevation angles together with the two corresponding camera centres as anchors making the feature initialization relatively straightforward. There is no redundancy in the state vector as this is a minimal representation. A bundle adjustment (BA) algorithm that minimizes the reprojection error of the line features is developed for solving the monocular SLAM problem with only line features. A new map joining algorithm which can automatically optimize the relative scales of the local maps is used to combine the local maps generated using BA. Results from both simulations and experimental datasets are used to demonstrate the accuracy and consistency of the proposed BA and map joining algorithms.

Zhao, M & Ji, JC 2015, 'Nonlinear torsional vibrations of a wind turbine gearbox', APPLIED MATHEMATICAL MODELLING, vol. 39, no. 16, pp. 4928-4950.
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Zhao, P, Gao, B, Xu, S, Kong, J, Ma, D, Shon, HK, Yue, Q & Liu, P 2015, 'Polyelectrolyte-promoted forward osmosis process for dye wastewater treatment – Exploring the feasibility of using polyacrylamide as draw solute', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 264, pp. 32-38.
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Zhao, P, Gao, B, Yue, Q & Shon, HK 2015, 'The performance of forward osmosis process in treating the surfactant wastewater: The rejection of surfactant, water flux and physical cleaning effectiveness', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 281, pp. 688-695.
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Zhao, P, Gao, B, Yue, Q, Kong, J, Shon, HK, Liu, P & Gao, Y 2015, 'Explore the forward osmosis performance using hydrolyzed polyacrylamide as draw solute for dye wastewater reclamation in the long-term process', CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL, vol. 273, pp. 316-324.
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Zhao, S, Qiu, X & Burnett, I 2015, 'Acoustic contrast control in an arc-shaped area using a linear loudspeaker array (L)', JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA, vol. 137, no. 2, pp. 1036-1039.
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This paper proposes a method of creating acoustic contrast control in an arc-shaped area using a linear loudspeaker array. The boundary of the arc-shaped area is treated as the envelope of the tangent lines that can be formed by manipulating the phase profile of the loudspeakers in the array. When compared with the existing acoustic contrast control method, the proposed method is able to generate sound field inside an arc-shaped area and achieve a trade-off between acoustic uniformity and acoustic contrast. The acoustic contrast created by the proposed method increases while the acoustic uniformity decreases with frequency.

Zhao, S, Qiu, X & Cheng, J 2015, 'An integral equation method for calculating sound field diffracted by a rigid barrier on an impedance ground', The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 138, no. 3, pp. 1608-1613.
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This paper proposes a different method for calculating a sound field diffracted by a rigid barrier based on the integral equation method, where a virtual boundary is assumed above the rigid barrier to divide the whole space into two subspaces. Based on the Kirchhoff-Helmholtz equation, the sound field in each subspace is determined with the source inside and the boundary conditions on the surface, and then the diffracted sound field is obtained by using the continuation conditions on the virtual boundary. Simulations are carried out to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. Compared to the MacDonald method and other existing methods, the proposed method is a rigorous solution for whole space and is also much easier to understand.

Zhao, S, Qiu, X, Cheng, E, Burnett, I, Williams, N, Burry, J & Burry, M 2015, 'Sound quality inside small meeting rooms with different room shape and fine structures', APPLIED ACOUSTICS, vol. 93, pp. 65-74.
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This note is intended to understand relative importance of room shape and fine structures on the sound quality inside small meeting rooms in terms of the reverberation time, the sound field distribution and the speech transmission index with similar room volume, surface area and the absorption coefficients. First, different shaped rooms with smooth walls are modeled and simulated to investigate the effects of room shape on the sound quality, and then hyperboloid cells are made on the walls to examine the influence of fine structural surface on sound quality with both regular and random arrangements. It is found that the reverberation time is affected significantly by the room shape while is not sensitive to the hyperboloid cells. The sound field distribution is affected little by the room shape and the hyperboloid cells and the difference is smaller than the Just-Noticeable-Difference in most cases. The impact of the room shape and fine structural surface on the speech transmission index mainly lies in the transition area between the direct sound and the reverberant sound. The reliability of the simulation remarks is confirmed by the experiments carried out in two different meeting rooms. The main conclusion of the note is that when the room volume, the surface area and the absorption coefficients are kept constant, the room shape and fine structural surface have little impact on the sound field distribution and speech intelligibility inside small rooms with ordinary surface absorption, while the reverberation time is affected significantly by room shape but slightly by the fine structural surface.

Zhao, W, Liu, W, Li, J, Lin, X & Wang, Y 2015, 'Preparation of animal polysaccharides nanofibers by electrospinning and their potential biomedical applications', Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, vol. 103, no. 2, pp. 807-818.
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AbstractAnimal polysaccharides belong to a class of biological macromolecules. They are natural biopolymers with numerous advantages for biomedical applications, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, non‐antigenicity and non‐toxicity. Electrospinning is a versatile and facile technique which can produce continuous fibers with nanoscale from a wide range of natural and synthetic polymers. The review aims to provide an up‐to‐date overview of the preparation of animal polysaccharides nanofibers by electrospinning and their potential biomedical applications such as tissue engineering, wound healing, and drug delivery. Various animal polysaccharides including chitin and chitosan (CS), hyaluronic acid (HA), heparin and heparan sulfate (HS), and chondroitin sulfate (ChS), are discussed. The challenges and some useful strategies in electrospinning of animal polysaccharides also are summarized. In addition, future study of animal polysaccharides nanofibers by electrospinning is proposed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 807–818, 2015.

Zhao, YX, Gao, BY, Shon, HK, Phuntsho, S & Yang, YZ 2015, 'Enhanced Coagulation of Titanium Tetrachloride Aided by the Modified Compound Bioflocculant', JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING, vol. 141, no. 9.
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© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers. The compound bioflocculant (CBF) was modified by graft copolymerization of acrylic amide and dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride, and the novel copolymer was denoted as MCBF. The effect of MCBF used as coagulant aid with titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) was investigated for both high and low molecule weight natural organic matter (NOM) removal. Floc characteristics were studied using a laser diffraction particle-sizing device. Results indicated that the monomers were successfully grafted onto the CBF, and the molecule weight and zeta potential of CBF were greatly improved. The MCBF with TiCl4 exhibited synergistic effect by promoting NOM removal, especially at low TiCl4 doses. Additionally, using MCBF as a coagulant aid with TiCl4 can significantly increase the floc growth rate, size, strength, and broken-floc recoverability. The effect of MCBF on fractal dimension of flocs generated by TiCl4 depended on NOM properties. Both coagulation performance and floc properties were significantly affected by dosing sequence.

Zhao, YX, Phuntsho, S, Gao, BY, Yang, YZ, Kim, J-H & Shon, HK 2015, 'Comparison of a novel polytitanium chloride coagulant with polyaluminium chloride: Coagulation performance and floc characteristics', JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, vol. 147, pp. 194-202.
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© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Polymerized inorganic coagulants are increasingly being used in the water supply and wastewater treatment process, yet there is limited research on the development of polytitanium coagulants. The aim of this study is to synthesize polytitanium chloride (PTC) coagulants and investigate their coagulation behavior and floc characteristics for humic acid removal in comparison to polyaluminum chloride (PAC). The PTC samples with different B (molar ratios of OH/Ti) values were prepared using an instantaneous base-feeding method, employing sodium carbonate as the basification agent. The coagulation efficiency was significantly influenced by different B values. The results suggest that the humic acid removal increased with the increasing B value for PAC, while the inverse trend was observed for PTC. The optimum B value was chosen at 1.0 and 2.0 for PTC and PAC, respectively. Under the optimum coagulant dose and initial solution pH conditions, the PTC coagulant performed better than the PAC coagulant and the floc properties were significantly improved in terms of floc growth rate and floc size. However, the PAC coagulants produced flocs with better floc recoverability than the PTC coagulants.

Zhao, Y-Y, Yu, N-K, Kurzynski, P, Xiang, G-Y, Li, C-F & Guo, G-C 2015, 'Experimental realisation of generalised qubit measurements based on quantum walks', Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, vol. 91, no. 4.
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We report an experimental implementation of a single-qubit generalisedmeasurement scenario(POVM) based on a quantum walk model. The qubit is encodedin a single-photon polarisation. The photon performs a quantum walk on an arrayof optical elements, where the polarisation-dependent translation is performedvia birefringent beam displacers and a change of the polarisation isimplemented with the help of wave-plates. We implement: (i) Trine-POVM, i.e.,the POVM elements uniformly distributed on an equatorial plane of the Blochsphere; (ii) Symmetric-Informationally- Complete (SIC) POVM; and (iii)Unambiguous Discrimination of two non-orthogonal qubit states.

Zhao, Z-Q, Han, G-S, Yu, Z-G & Li, J 2015, 'Laplacian normalization and random walk on heterogeneous networks for disease-gene prioritization', Computational Biology and Chemistry, vol. 57, pp. 21-28.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Random walk on heterogeneous networks is a recently emerging approach to effective disease gene prioritization. Laplacian normalization is a technique capable of normalizing the weight of edges in a network. We use this technique to normalize the gene matrix and the phenotype matrix before the construction of the heterogeneous network, and also use this idea to define the transition matrices of the heterogeneous network. Our method has remarkably better performance than the existing methods for recovering known gene-phenotype relationships. The Shannon information entropy of the distribution of the transition probabilities in our networks is found to be smaller than the networks constructed by the existing methods, implying that a higher number of top-ranked genes can be verified as disease genes. In fact, the most probable gene-phenotype relationships ranked within top 3 or top 5 in our gene lists can be confirmed by the OMIM database for many cases. Our algorithms have shown remarkably superior performance over the state-of-the-art algorithms for recovering gene-phenotype relationships. All Matlab codes can be available upon email request.

Zheng, H, Forgetta, V, Hsu, Y, Estrada, K, Rosello‐Diez, A, Leo, PJ, Dahia, CL, Park‐Min, KH, Tobias, JH, Kooperberg, C, Kleinman, A, Styrkarsdottir, U, Liu, C, Uggla, C, Evans, DS, Nielson, CM, Walter, K, Pettersson‐Kymmer, U, McCarthy, S, Eriksson, J, Kwan, T, Jhamai, M, Trajanoska, K, Memari, Y, Min, J, Huang, J, Danecek, P, Wilmot, B, Li, R, Chou, W, Mokry, LE, Moayyeri, A, Claussnitzer, M, Cheng, C, Cheung, W, Medina‐Gómez, C, Ge, B, Chen, S, Choi, K, Oei, L, Fraser, J, Kraaij, R, Hibbs, MA, Gregson, CL, Paquette, D, Hofman, A, Wibom, C, Tranah, GJ, Marshall, M, Gardiner, BB, Cremin, K, Auer, P, Hsu, L, Ring, S, Tung, JY, Thorleifsson, G, Enneman, AW, van Schoor, NM, de Groot, LCPGM, van der Velde, N, Melin, B, Kemp, JP, Christiansen, C, Sayers, A, Zhou, Y, Calderari, S, van Rooij, J, Carlson, C, Peters, U, Berlivet, S, Dostie, J, Uitterlinden, AG, Williams, SR, Farber, C, Grinberg, D, LaCroix, AZ, Haessler, J, Chasman, DI, Giulianini, F, Rose, LM, Ridker, PM, Eisman, JA, Nguyen, TV, Center, JR, Nogues, X, Garcia‐Giralt, N, Launer, LL, Gudnason, V, Mellström, D, Vandenput, L, Amin, N, van Duijn, CM, Karlsson, MK, Ljunggren, Ö, Svensson, O, Hallmans, G, Rousseau, F, Giroux, S, Bussière, J, Arp, PP, Koromani, F, Prince, RL, Lewis, JR, Langdahl, BL, Pernille Hermann, A, Jensen, JB, Kaptoge, S, Khaw, K, Reeve, J, Formosa, MM, Xuereb‐Anastasi, A, Åkesson, K, McGuigan, FE, Garg, G, Olmos, JM, Zarrabeitia, MT, Riancho, JA, Ralston, SH, Alonso, N, Jiang, X, Goltzman, D, Pastinen, T, Grundberg, E, Gauguier, D, Orwoll, ES, Karasik, D, Davey‐Smith, G, Smith, AV, Siggeirsdottir, K, Harris, TB, Carola Zillikens, M, van Meurs, JBJ, Thorsteinsdottir, U, Maurano, MT, Timpson, NJ, Soranzo, N, Durbin, R, Wilson, SG, Ntzani, EE, Brown, MA, Stefansson, K, Hinds, DA, Spector, T, Adrienne Cupples, L, Ohlsson, C, Greenwood, CMT, Jackson, RD, Rowe, DW, Loomis, CA, Evans, DM, Ackert‐Bicknell, CL, Joyner, AL, Duncan, EL, Kiel, DP, Rivadeneira, F & Richards, JB 2015, 'Whole‐genome sequencing identifies EN1 as a determinant of bone density and fracture', Nature, vol. 526, no. 7571, pp. 112-117.
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© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. The extent to which low-frequency (minor allele frequency (MAF) between 1-5%) and rare (MAF ≤ 1%) variants contribute to complex traits and disease in the general population is mainly unknown. Bone mineral density (BMD) is highly heritable, a major predictor of osteoporotic fractures, and has been previously associated with common genetic variants, as well as rare, population-specific, coding variants. Here we identify novel non-coding genetic variants with large effects on BMD (ntotal = 53,236) and fracture (ntotal = 508,253) in individuals of European ancestry from the general population. Associations for BMD were derived from whole-genome sequencing (n = 2,882 from UK10K (ref. 10); a population-based genome sequencing consortium), whole-exome sequencing (n = 3,549), deep imputation of genotyped samples using a combined UK10K/1000 Genomes reference panel (n = 26,534), and de novo replication genotyping (n = 20,271). We identified a low-frequency non-coding variant near a novel locus, EN1, with an effect size fourfold larger than the mean of previously reported common variants for lumbar spine BMD (rs11692564(T), MAF = 1.6%, replication effect size = +0.20 s.d., Pmeta = 2 × 10-14), which was also associated with a decreased risk of fracture (odds ratio = 0.85; P = 2 × 10-11; ncases = 98,742 and n controls = 409,511). Using an En1 cre/flox mouse model, we observed that conditional loss of En1 results in low bone mass, probably as a consequence of high bone turnover. We also identified a novel low-frequency non-coding variant with large effects on BMD near WNT16 (rs148771817(T), MAF = 1.2%, replication effect size = +0.41 s.d., Pmeta = 1 × 10-11). In general, there was an excess of association signals arising from deleterious coding and conserved non-coding variants. These findings provide evidence that low-frequency non-coding variants have large effects on BMD and fracture, thereby providing rat...

Zheng, J, Li, Y, Li, Z & Wang, J 2015, 'Transient multi-physics analysis of a magnetorheological shock absorber with the inverse Jiles–Atherton hysteresis model', Smart Materials and Structures, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 105024-105024.
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© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd. This paper presents multi-physics modeling of an MR absorber considering the magnetic hysteresis to capture the nonlinear relationship between the applied current and the generated force under impact loading. The magnetic field, temperature field, and fluid dynamics are represented by the Maxwell equations, conjugate heat transfer equations, and Navier-Stokes equations. These fields are coupled through the apparent viscosity and the magnetic force, both of which in turn depend on the magnetic flux density and the temperature. Based on a parametric study, an inverse Jiles-Atherton hysteresis model is used and implemented for the magnetic field simulation. The temperature rise of the MR fluid in the annular gap caused by core loss (i.e. eddy current loss and hysteresis loss) and fluid motion is computed to investigate the current-force behavior. A group of impulsive tests was performed for the manufactured MR absorber with step exciting currents. The numerical and experimental results showed good agreement, which validates the effectiveness of the proposed multi-physics FEA model.

Zheng, J-J, Wang, X-J, Ouyang, Q, Li, Y-C & Wang, J 2015, 'Modeling and characterization of novel magnetorheological (MR) cell with individual currents', Journal of Central South University, vol. 22, no. 7, pp. 2557-2567.
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© 2015, Central South University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Magnetorheological (MR) cell with multi-coil was designed to enlarge the range of controllable transmission torque by increasing the effective length. Individual input current was proposed to maximize its potential for reducing power consumption and generating large yield stress. Finite element analysis was performed to analyze magnetic field distribution, based on which a prototype MR cell was fabricated and tested to investigate the performance of various combinations of individual input currents. A good correlation was identified between experimental results and FEA predications. The results show that the power consumption can be reduced to 42.4%, maintaining large transmission torque, by distributing the total current (2 A) to three individual magnetic coils. In addition, optimal results of four input currents considering a multi-objective function are obtained by changing the weighting factor λ. The advantage of this design, such as lower power consumption and more control flexibility, makes it more competitive in engineering applications that require large energy consumption.

Zheng, S, Tong, L & Luo, Q 2015, 'Finite element formulations and algorithms for coupled multiphysics analysis of 0-1 and 0-3 polarized PLZT actuators', International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 513-530.
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Zheng, Z, Peng, K, Du, W & Zhang, G 2015, 'Modeling, Control, and Optimization in Aeronautical Engineering', The Scientific World Journal, vol. 2015, pp. 1-2.
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Zhou, A & Sheng, D 2015, 'An advanced hydro-mechanical constitutive model for unsaturated soils with different initial densities', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 63, pp. 46-66.
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Zhou, A, Liu, M, Li, Z & Dutkiewicz, E 2015, 'Cross-layer design with optimal dynamic gateway selection for wireless mesh networks', Computer Communications, vol. 55, pp. 69-79.
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Zhou, B, Xu, G & Li, S 2015, 'The Quintuple Implication Principle of fuzzy reasoning', Information Sciences, vol. 297, pp. 202-215.
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© 2014 Elsevier Inc. Fuzzy Modus Ponens (FMP) and Fuzzy Modus Tollens (FMT) are two fundamental patterns of approximate reasoning. Suppose A and B are fuzzy predicates and 'IF A THEN B' is a fuzzy rule. Approximate reasoning often requires to derive an approximation A∗ of B from a given approximation A∗ of A, or vice versa. To solve these problems, Zadeh introduces the well-known Compositional Rule of Inference (CRI), which models fuzzy rule by implication and computes A∗ (A∗, resp.) by composing A∗ (A∗, resp.) with A→B. Wang argues that the use of the compositional operation is logically not sufficiently justified and proposes the Triple Implication Principle (TIP) instead. Both CRI and TIP do not explicitly use the closeness of A and A∗ (or that of B and A∗) in the process of calculating the consequence, which makes the thus computed approximation sometimes useless or misleading. In this paper, we propose the Quintuple Implication Principle (QIP) for fuzzy reasoning, which characterizes the approximation A∗ of B (A∗ of A, resp.) as the formula which is best supported by A→B,A∗→A and A∗ (A→B,B→A∗ and A∗, resp.). Based upon Monoidal t-norm Logic (MTL), this paper applies QIP to solve FMP and FMT for four important implications. Most importantly, we show that QIP, when using Gödel implication, computes exactly the same approximation as Mamdani-type fuzzy inference does. This is surprising as Mamdani interprets fuzzy rules in terms of the minimum operation, while CRI, TIP and QIP all interpret fuzzy rules in terms of implication.

Zhou, H, Liu, B, Hou, F, Luan, TH, Zhang, N, Gui, L, Yu, Q & Shen, XS 2015, 'Spatial Coordinated Medium Sharing: Optimal Access Control Management in Drive-Thru Internet', IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 2673-2686.
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Zhou, H, Liu, B, Hou, F, Zhang, N, Gui, L, Chen, J & Shen, X 2015, 'Database-assisted dynamic spectrum access with QoS guarantees: A double-phase auction approach', China Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 66-77.
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Zhou, J & Chen, F 2015, 'Making machine learning useable', International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 91-91.
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Despite the recognised value of machine learning (ML) techniques and high expectation of applying ML techniques within various applications, users often find it difficult to effectively apply ML techniques in practise because of complicated interfaces between ML algorithms and users. This paper focuses on investigating making ML useable from the point of view of how human-computer interaction (HCI) techniques benefit ML in order to simplify the interface between users and ML algorithms. We formulate possible research directions in making ML useable based on human factors, decision making and trust in ML. We strongly believe that a trustworthy decision making based on ML results, which is the ultimate goal of ML-based applications, contributes to the overall application performance and makes ML more useable. Two case studies of measurable decision making and revealing internal states of ML process are presented to show how HCI techniques are used to make ML useable.

Zhou, J, Dutkiewicz, E, Liu, RP, Fang, G & Liu, Y 2015, 'Energy Efficient Duty Cycle Design based on Quantum Immune Clonal Evolutionary Algorithm in Body Area Networks', Proceedings of the 10th EAI International Conference on Body Area Networks, vol. 16, no. 9.
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© 2015 ICST. Duty cycle design is an important topic in body area networks. As small sensors are equipped with the limited power source, the extension of network lifetime is generally achieved by reducing the network energy consumption, for instance through duty cycle schemes. However, the duty cycle design is a highly complex NP-hard problem and its computational complexity is too high with exhaustive search algorithm for practical implementation. In order to extend the network lifetime, we proposed a novel quantum immune clonal evolutionary algorithm (QICEA) for duty cycle design while maintaining full coverage in the monitoring area. The QICEA is tested, and a performance comparison is made with simulated annealing (SA) and genetic algorithm (GA). Simulation results show that compared to the SA and the GA, the proposed QICEA can extending the lifetime of body area networks and enhancing the energy efficiency effectively.

Zhou, J, Dutkiewicz, E, Liu, RP, Fang, G & Liu, Y 2015, 'Low Energy Clustering in BAN Based on Fuzzy Simulated Evolutionary Computation', Proceedings of the 10th EAI International Conference on Body Area Networks, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 1-7.
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© 2015 ICST. A low energy clustering method of body area networks based on fuzzy simulated evolutionary computation is proposed in this paper. To reduce communication energy consumption, we also designed a fuzzy controller to dynamically adjust the crossover and mutation probability. Simulations are conducted by using the proposed method, the clustering methods based on the particle swarm optimization and the method based on the quantum evolutionary algorithm. Results show that the energy consumption of the proposed method decreased compared with the other two methods, which means that the proposed method significantly improves the energy efficiency.

Zhou, J, Dutkiewicz, E, Liu, RP, Huang, X, Fang, G & Liu, Y 2015, 'A Modified Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm for PAPR Reduction in OFDM Systems', IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 698-709.
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© 2015 IEEE. Significant reduction of the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is an implementation challenge in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. One way to reduce PAPR is to apply a set of selected partial transmission sequence (PTS) to the transmit signals. However, PTS selection is a highly complex NP-hard problem and the computational complexity is very high when a large number of subcarriers are used in the OFDM system. In this paper, we propose a new heuristic PTS selection method, the modified chaos clonal shuffled frog leaping algorithm (MCCSFLA). MCCSFLA is inspired by natural clonal selection of a frog colony, it is based on the chaos theory. We also analyze MCCSFLA using the Markov chain theory and prove that the algorithm can converge to the global optimum. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves better PAPR reduction than using others genetic, quantum evolutionary and selective mapping algorithms. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm converges faster than the genetic and quantum evolutionary algorithms.

ZHOU, J, QIN, Y, KOU, L, YUWONO, M & SU, S 2015, 'Fault detection of rolling bearing based on FFT and classification', Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. JAMDSM0056-JAMDSM0056.
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Zhou, J, Sun, J, Chen, F, Wang, Y, Taib, R, Khawaji, A & Li, Z 2015, 'Measurable Decision Making with GSR and Pupillary Analysis for Intelligent User Interface', ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 1-23.
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This article presents a framework of adaptive, measurable decision making for Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) by varying decision factors in their types, numbers, and values. Under this framework, decision making is measured using physiological sensors such as Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and eye-tracking while users are subjected to varying decision quality and difficulty levels. Following this quantifiable decision making, users are allowed to refine several decision factors in order to make decisions of high quality and with low difficulty levels. A case study of driving route selection is used to set up an experiment to test our hypotheses. In this study, GSR features exhibit the best performance in indexing decision quality. These results can be used to guide the design of intelligent user interfaces for decision-related applications in HCI that can adapt to user behavior and decision-making performance.

Zhou, L, Nath, N, Markovich, O, Yuksel, A, Roberts, A & Catchpoole, D 2015, 'The Tumour Bank of The Children's Hospital at Westmead', Biopreservation and Biobanking, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 147-148.
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Zhou, X, Jiang, G, Zhang, T, Wang, Q, Xie, G-J & Yuan, Z 2015, 'Role of extracellular polymeric substances in improvement of sludge dewaterability through peroxidation', Bioresource Technology, vol. 192, pp. 817-820.
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Zhou, X, Wang, Q, Jiang, G, Liu, P & Yuan, Z 2015, 'A novel conditioning process for enhancing dewaterability of waste activated sludge by combination of zero-valent iron and persulfate', Bioresource Technology, vol. 185, pp. 416-420.
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Zhu, A, Guo, J, Ni, B-J, Wang, S, Yang, Q & Peng, Y 2015, 'A Novel Protocol for Model Calibration in Biological Wastewater Treatment', Scientific Reports, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 8493.
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AbstractActivated sludge models (ASMs) have been widely used for process design, operation and optimization in wastewater treatment plants. However, it is still a challenge to achieve an efficient calibration for reliable application by using the conventional approaches. Hereby, we propose a novel calibration protocol, i.e. Numerical Optimal Approaching Procedure (NOAP), for the systematic calibration of ASMs. The NOAP consists of three key steps in an iterative scheme flow: i) global factors sensitivity analysis for factors fixing; ii) pseudo-global parameter correlation analysis for non-identifiable factors detection; and iii) formation of a parameter subset through an estimation by using genetic algorithm. The validity and applicability are confirmed using experimental data obtained from two independent wastewater treatment systems, including a sequencing batch reactor and a continuous stirred-tank reactor. The results indicate that the NOAP can effectively determine the optimal parameter subset and successfully perform model calibration and validation for these two different systems. The proposed NOAP is expected to use for automatic calibration of ASMs and be applied potentially to other ordinary differential equations models.

Zhu, H & Abbosh, A 2015, 'Compact tunable bandpass filter with wide tuning range using ring resonator and short‐ended coupled lines', Electronics Letters, vol. 51, no. 7, pp. 568-570.
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Zhu, H & Abbosh, A 2015, 'Tunable band‐pass filter with wide stopband and high selectivity using centre‐loaded coupled structure', IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, vol. 9, no. 13, pp. 1371-1375.
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Zhu, H, Wang, Y & Abbosh, AM 2015, 'Broadband microwave crossover using parallel‐coupled microstrip lines and short‐ended stubs', IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 79-85.
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Zhu, H, Xu, Y & Lee, JE-Y 2015, 'Piezoresistive Readout Mechanically Coupled Lamé Mode SOI Resonator With $Q$ of a Million', Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 771-780.
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Zhu, L, Xu, Z, Yang, Y & Hauptmann, AG 2015, 'Uncovering Temporal Context for Video Question and Answering', International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 124, pp. 409-421.
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In this work, we introduce Video Question Answering in temporal domain toinfer the past, describe the present and predict the future. We present anencoder-decoder approach using Recurrent Neural Networks to learn temporalstructures of videos and introduce a dual-channel ranking loss to answermultiple-choice questions. We explore approaches for finer understanding ofvideo content using question form of 'fill-in-the-blank', and managed tocollect 109,895 video clips with duration over 1,000 hours from TACoS, MPII-MD,MEDTest 14 datasets, while the corresponding 390,744 questions are generatedfrom annotations. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approachsignificantly outperforms the compared baselines.

Zhu, XQ & Law, SS 2015, 'Structural Health Monitoring Based on Vehicle-Bridge Interaction: Accomplishments and Challenges', Advances in Structural Engineering, vol. 18, no. 12, pp. 1999-2015.
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The use of the vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) data for structural health monitoring has received considerable interest in the last decade. Compared with the traditional bridge health monitoring, the VBI based approach allows the target bridges to be monitored or assessed under operating conditions. The VBI system has time-variant features and the vehicle can serve as a moving exciter and a mobile sensor in the system. Many bridge damage identification techniques based on VBI have been developed, and they could be divided into three categories, namely, technique based on the bridge responses, technique based on the vehicle responses and technique based on both the vehicle and bridge responses. This paper presents a review on the structural health monitoring based on VBI and the challenges for its general implementation in practice.

Zibellini, J, Seimon, RV, Lee, CMY, Gibson, AA, Hsu, MSH, Shapses, SA, Nguyen, TV & Sainsbury, A 2015, 'Does Diet-Induced Weight Loss Lead to Bone Loss in Overweight or Obese Adults? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 2168-2178.
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ABSTRACT   Diet-induced weight loss has been suggested to be harmful to bone health. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis (using a random-effects model) to quantify the effect of diet-induced weight loss on bone. We included 41 publications involving overweight or obese but otherwise healthy adults who followed a dietary weight-loss intervention. The primary outcomes examined were changes from baseline in total hip, lumbar spine, and total body bone mineral density (BMD), as assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Secondary outcomes were markers of bone turnover. Diet-induced weight loss was associated with significant decreases of 0.010 to 0.015 g/cm2 in total hip BMD for interventions of 6, 12, or 24 (but not 3) months' duration (95% confidence intervals [CIs], –0.014 to –0.005, –0.021 to –0.008, and –0.024 to –0.000 g/cm2, at 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively). There was, however, no statistically significant effect of diet-induced weight loss on lumbar spine or whole-body BMD for interventions of 3 to 24 months' duration, except for a significant decrease in total body BMD (–0.011 g/cm2; 95% CI, –0.018 to –0.003 g/cm2) after 6 months. Although no statistically significant changes occurred in serum concentrations of N-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (P1NP), interventions of 2 or 3 months in duration (but not of 6, 12, or 24 months' duration) induced significant increases in serum concentrations of osteocalcin (0.26 nmol/L; 95% CI, 0.13 to 0.39 nmol/L), C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) (4.72 nmol/L; 95% CI, 2.12 to 7.30 nmol/L) or N-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX) (3.70 nmol/L; 95% CI, 0.90 to 6.50 nmol/L bone collagen equivalents [BCEs]), indicating an early effect of diet-induced weight loss to promote bone breakdown. These data show that in overweight and obese indi...

Zou, Y, Lei, G, Shao, K, Guo, Y, Zhu, J & Chen, X 2015, 'Hybrid Approach of Radial Basis Function and Finite Element Method for Electromagnetic Problems', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 1-4.
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Zuthi, MFR, Ngo, HH, Guo, WS, Nghiem, LD, Hai, FI, Xia, SQ, Zhang, ZQ & Li, JX 2015, 'Biomass viability: An experimental study and the development of an empirical mathematical model for submerged membrane bioreactor', Bioresource Technology, vol. 190, pp. 352-358.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This study investigates the influence of key biomass parameters on specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) in a sponge submerged membrane bioreactor (SSMBR) to develop mathematical models of biomass viability. Extra-cellular polymeric substances (EPS) were considered as a lumped parameter of bound EPS (bEPS) and soluble microbial products (SMP). Statistical analyses of experimental results indicate that the bEPS, SMP, mixed liquor suspended solids and volatile suspended solids (MLSS and MLVSS) have functional relationships with SOUR and their relative influence on SOUR was in the order of EPS. > bEPS. >. SMP. >. MLVSS/MLSS. Based on correlations among biomass parameters and SOUR, two independent empirical models of biomass viability were developed. The models were validated using results of the SSMBR. However, further validation of the models for different operating conditions is suggested.

Zwinkau, R, Krebs, M & Deuse, J 2015, 'Wertstromübergreifende Auslegung von Bauteilreinigungskonzepten', JOT Journal für Oberflächentechnik, vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 52-55.
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